


Mutually Beneficial

by Strix_Acadicus



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Aftercare, Alien Biology, Alien Character(s), Alien Cultural Differences, Angst, Bad BDSM Etiquette, Bastardization of how space suits work, Canon-Typical Violence, Dubious Consent, Fear Play, Gaslighting, Gunplay, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Imposters aren't parasitic they're just shapeshifting aliens, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Sex, M/M, Manipulative Language, Marking, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Multi, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Polyamory Negotiations, Porn With Plot, Possessive Behavior, Praise Kink, Sexual Coercion, Sexual Confusion, Shapeshifting, Subdrop, Subspace, Threats of Violence, Threesome, Voyeurism, Xenophilia, emotional cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:14:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27145756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strix_Acadicus/pseuds/Strix_Acadicus
Summary: What happens when a crewmate is more opportunistic than an inept impostor
Relationships: Crewmate/Impostor (Among Us), Impostor/Impostor (Among Us)
Comments: 59
Kudos: 335





	1. Credible Threats

Red ground his teeth, rubbing irritatedly at a splotch of oil on his sleeve. Lately even the smallest things seemed to get on his nerves. He really needed to burn off some steam. He wasn’t annoyed without merit, however. His training partner had been killed, and his co pilot had been stabbed nearly to death. Simply put, he had been having a shit week, but he couldn't turn the ship around now. Under normal circumstances he wasn’t known for being the nicest, but he was well respected, and to him that was worth more. 

Presently, he was heading back to weapons to run diagnostics. He didn’t normally do anything with fueling the ship, but he had to pick up the slack from Blue being out of commission for the time being. All of their schedules had to be adjusted to cover the leftover tasks now, so at first, hearing a metallic clang from navigation didn’t phase him. Until he remembered he had charted the ship's course earlier that day. There wasn’t a reason for anyone else to be in there. Red did a double take, not knowing if he should be angry or elated at finding another ‘crewmate’ in this state. Yellow’s boots were just barely visible from the doorframe. Red looked in silently, confirming that the other was currently halfway down a vent. 

Yellow had always been quiet. He got his tasks done on time, usually early. He was shy, always hanging around in electrical or security, but everyone seemed to like what little they saw of him. Thinking back, all of that should have been immediate red flags. He was disarming. Too much so. “Mother fucker…” Red muttered under his breath, stepping into the room quickly and smashing the panel on the wall to close the door.

Upon hearing the door slam shut, Yellow froze in his tracks, breath hitching. He felt like he couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything. He had been caught, and could practically feel himself being shoved out of the airlock already. His stomach dropped when he heard Red’s voice. Out of everyone who could’ve found him like this, it had to be the captain. He didn’t have any way out of this now. 

“Don’t you think it’s in poor taste? Coming back to where you nearly killed Blue?” Red’s voice was low, dipping into a near snarl at the end. He pursed his lips after a few moments of silence. “Really? Nothing? No tentacles coming out to grab me, no attempt at escape, not even a weapon?” Red tsked, walking in a semicircle around Yellow, waiting for any response. He finally reached forward, grabbing the other’s suit in the middle of the back and dragging him out from the vent. “Is this some kind of mindgame to get my guard down or are you just a pussy?” 

Yellow froze up completely when Red drug him out. He slowly shifted, his heart was racing and he felt like his body was on autopilot as he slowly stood. He flinched when he turned and saw that Red had drawn his handgun and was now pointing it at his chest. 

Red huffed out a laugh, “Are you seriously just a coward? I’ve dealt with impostors before, but at least they had the guts to put up a fight.” Something about how meek the other seemed intrigued him. He was different from any impostor he’d encountered before, if he wasn’t trying to fight him yet maybe he could get Yellow to cooperate with him.

Yellow didn’t say anything. Just stared at the other, frozen like a deer in the headlights. 

Red, growing irritated, reached forward and snapped his fingers in Yellow’s face as if he were a dog, making the impostor recoil. “I know you’re not mute. If you were so worried about getting caught you should have been smarter about it.”

Yellow finally spoke up after a few more seconds of silence. “I just- There’s not much for me to say. Everyone saw you get cleared right after we departed, they all know to believe you so what’s the point of saying anything.” Yellow moved his hands nervously, attempting to put his hands in his pockets.

“Stop.” Red barked, making Yellow freeze again. “Keep your hands where I can see them. And why don’t you take off your helmet for good measure. It’s easier to talk that way.”

Hesitantly, Yellow did as instructed and removed his helmet, holding it awkwardly as he watched red do the same. Once Red’s helmet was off he cautiously set it on the ground.

Red had removed his helmet quickly, not wanting to let the impostor out of his sight in case this was all a ruse. It would be easier to read him without it obstructing his vision, and maybe even placate the other some by giving him a false sense of security, even if he was still being held at gunpoint. He held his helmet for a moment, taking the captain’s hat off of it and placing it firmly on his head, not bothering to fix his messy hair first. He set the helmet down then crossed his arms, holding the gun up with one hand and motioning with it as he spoke. “Listen to me. You’re going to cooperate with me from here on out or I'll shoot you, plain and simple.” Red paused, looking down at his gun rather than at Yellow. Have you heard about the new bullets the US is manufacturing?” Red mumbled, almost to himself before looking back to Yellow to gauge his reaction. He looked genuinely scared. It took some willpower for Red to suppress a smile at that. “They start dissolving flesh on impact,” He continued, “It’s almost always fatal when not shot into a limb.” He ran his fingers over the barrel of his gun, near affectionately. Pausing, he looked back to the impostor again, who was watching him with wide eyes. “Do I make myself clear?”

“Very.” Yellow’s voice was quiet and his eyes darted around, wavering on Red’s face. He never liked having his helmet off. It was like his last line of protection was gone, but he didn't have the resolve to argue.

Red looked up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking. “Show me what you look like normally.” His voice was level, somewhere between interested and commanding. 

“Wh-”

“You don’t want to piss me off, Yellow.” Red’s voice dropped, and he traded his gun from one hand to the other, uncrossing his arms. “I know you’re a shapeshifter so prove it, show me what you look like naturally. Unless you want me to throw you out now?”

Yellow paled. “No sir,” He swallowed, balling his fists. “Just… Give me a moment please, I have to concentrate.”

The impostor closed his eyes. Red quirked a brow, growing genuinely interested as the other’s skin shifted colors similarly to that of a squid. All the color drained out, leaving the alien’s skin a pale shade of grey. His hair didn’t change much, remaining honey blonde, but it appeared to get glossier, unnaturally so. 

Red stepped forward, sliding his gun back into its holster but keeping a hand on it. At the movement, Yellow’s eyes snapped open. He stayed put, appearance not changing anymore. Upon further inspection he realized Yellow’s skin wasn't fully devoid of color, but had a spattering of yellow dots over his cheeks. His eyes had also shifted in color from their former hazel to a bright, pale yellow. The sclera hadn't changed, but there was no discernable pupil. The combined iris and pupil had shifted into a slit shape. It wasn’t completely slim, rounding out on the horizontal edges like the eyes of a cat . Red snorted quietly to himself, amused at the way the impostor's natural appearance matched his chosen color near perfectly. 

“So, is the whole yellow motif because you like the color or because you were born like this?” Red spoke after a few moments. “Or were you hatched?” He added, smirking. 

“It actually is hatched,” Yellow mumbled, looking down. Something about Red’s reaction to it, like it had just been a joke, embarrassed him. “But the color is natural, all of us have colors in the way I do, not a lot, just our eyes and bioluminescent spots. They're usually bright colors-”

“Bioluminescent. Hmm,” Red hummed to himself, cutting Yellow off. He wasn’t very interested in the impostor’s species, just that he would be able to serve his needs enough to make keeping him alive a worthwhile endeavor.

He continued to look Yellow over slowly, noting the other’s slight flinch as he reached out to touch him. Where an ear would be on a person, the impostor had a fin-like protrusion that wrapped around his jaw, tapering off at his collarbone. It didn’t look dissimilar to a cobra’s hood. Red grabbed it lightly, running his fingers down. Yellow was staying still, but he could feel the impostor’s jerky breaths from the close proximity. That pleased him no end. The appendage felt similar to the cartilage on a human’s ear, but thicker, not having much give. There were dull spikes along the edge, six in total, half of which fell at the end of the shallow ridges on his ‘ear’. He looked fairly reptilian, but not like any existing reptile on earth. The unfamiliar aspects of his features made him look somewhat draconic, just without any intimidation factor.

“You look human enough.” He muttered. Red leaned back once he was satisfied with his evaluation of the other. He cracked his knuckles before crossing his arms again. “You’re still in a pretty precarious situation, you know. I could still get you thrown out, we both know the whole crew trusts me.” Red watched Yellow closely as he talked. The other had relaxed some from earlier, but he could see him getting anxious again. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep his satisfaction from showing. 

“I know,” Yellow spoke up quietly, “I don’t want to hurt anyone, honestly, I just didn’t have any other options, it was either this or-” 

Red rolled his eyes before cutting Yellow off. The impostor’s tendency to ramble was getting on his nerves, he almost preferred it when he was just silent, but at least he shut up the second he started talking. “I’m not worried about you hurting anyone. I doubt you could go through with it even if you _did_ want to. It wasn’t you who killed Brown, was it?” 

Yellow shook his head, “No, I didn’t attack Blue either.” He frowned, unnerved that Red was able to read him so easily. He really wasn’t cut out for this line of work. 

“So. If it wasn’t you, who’s the other impostor.” Red added after a moment, staring him down.

Yellow took a shaky breath, meeting Red’s eyes nervously, “It’s Orange.”

Finally allowing himself a full smirk, Red clapped Yellow on the shoulder as he closed the distance between them once again. “Glad to see you’re so compliant already. You weren’t close to them, were you?”

“No, we weren’t close… Is that all you wanted?” 

Red hummed, “Well I think If I let you go now just like that it would make this a bit one sided, don’t you agree? I mean, you came here with the intent to kill all the humans on the ship, correct? And you want me to let you go free just like that? I don’t think that seems like a very safe option, all things considered. What if this was all just an act to get on my good side, hmm?” He shifted, trailing his hand down Yellow’s arm after squeezing his shoulder tightly. “No, I’m going to need a little more cooperation from you to let you stay. I have a proposal for you, make a deal with me and maybe I’ll agree to keep you safe and alive on the ship.” 

He hesitated, looking back at Red and searching his impassive expression. “A deal?”


	2. Commensalism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> porn time pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: this chapter contains sexual coercion and hints of dubcon.

“Yes. A deal.” Red rolled his eyes as he reiterated. He stepped back once, giving Yellow some personal space again.

Yellow cocked his head slightly. His heart was still racing. Even if Red had stopped pointing a gun at him, the threat was still there. “What would that entail, exactly?”

“Well for starters, drop any weapons you have on you.”

Yellow quickly reached into his pocket and took out a closed pocket knife, dropping it near immediately and sliding it away with his foot. “That’s all I had. You can pat me down if you want to Red-”

“Sir. Call me sir from now on, I liked it when you did earlier. No exceptions, unless we’re in a group setting.”

Yellow quirked a brow, but nodded. From his understanding of human power dynamics he felt like he should be embarrassed, but he went along with it. He figured it would be a lot safer if he just did what Red wanted. 

“Alright. So I’m going to give you some ground rules. If anything gets sabotaged after this or if anyone else gets attacked all bets are off. I won’t defend you anymore, and I’ll have no problem dispatching you myself if I need to. But I don’t think it’ll need to come to that, you seem to be eager enough to forfeit your mission, and if you cooperate with me on everything else I don't see that happening.” 

After a few seconds of silence, Yellow spoke up, “What do you mean by everything else?”

“I mean everything I might need or want from you. It’s a risk to keep you alive, I at least need assurance you’re willing to comply with what I want.”

Yellow bit at his lip, searching Red’s face. “ ‘Everything’ is pretty vague…”

“You’re not in a position to argue though, are you?” 

“Well no-”

“Good. Then answer a question for me. Does your species reproduce?” Red managed to keep a straight face, trying to ignore how just asking something like that had him starting to get worked up.

Eyes widening, Yellow felt himself blush. The blood made his cheeks turn a darker shade of grey. “Is that really-”

“I asked you a question.” Red dropped his voice, keeping a bored expression as he moved a hand down to run over his holstered gun. 

Yellow swallowed, looking to the human with a furrowed brow. “Well, yes, we do…” He stared at Red for a few moments, “Are you saying that’s what you want from me? I’m near positive we’re incompatible-”

Red huffed out a laugh, “I don’t intend on knocking you up. Or whatever the hell you normally do. I just want to fuck you. You know, for stress relief.” While he was, for the most part, able to keep his composure, Red could feel his face getting hotter as he spoke. He was progressively getting more turned on. “I need something out of you to sweeten the deal for me. It'll take some work to keep you safe and alive, and I want something out of it. So show me you’re willing to cooperate. Are you?”

Yellow’s eyes flicked down to Red’s hip. The latter saw him do so, and casually tapped the butt of his gun, waiting for the alien’s response. 

There was something so bizarre about what Red was doing, asking him for consent while his hand was still resting on his gun, an unspoken threat, that Yellow almost laughed at the irony. The sound came out stifled, and he cleared his throat to cover it up. “I guess I am… I don’t particularly mind either way, and I can’t really say no, can I?” Yellow offered him a nervous smile.

Red noted that his teeth were sharp. He hummed, “No, I suppose you can’t.” He moved in closer, gauging for any resistance from the other as he ran a hand up his side. “Bite me and I kill you.” He muttered out quietly, reaching for the zipper of his suit. 

Yellow nodded, wavering as Red started unzipping his suit. “Wouldn’t you prefer to do... this in your quarters?”

“No. Right here is fine.” 

Yellow nodded again nervously, body going slack as he let the taller male manhandle him, pressing him against the wall. Red unzipped his suit down the front before reaching into it, barely sliding it down Yellow’s shoulders. He bypassed his undershirt entirely, moving to his pants and groping at the flat area. 

“Is this it?” 

“Not exactly, but I can shapeshift to having human genitalia if you want-”

“No. Stay how you normally are. I’ll tell you if I want you to change something.” 

Yellow fell quiet, bracing his hands against the wall as Red slid his pants down just enough to properly touch him. He really didn’t think this was a convenient spot to be doing something like this, but the human obviously had a much higher libido than he did. It must be clouding his thinking. As the stimulation continued, Yellow reflexively grew more aroused. Reaching up, he grabbed onto Red’s arm that was pressed against the wall by his face for purchase. He pressed against Red’s hand and pressed his face into his shoulder, making a quiet chittering sound low in his throat as instinct overrode his confusion at the situation. 

Red couldn’t really see what was happening down there but he didn’t care to at the moment. All that mattered was that he could feel the other getting progressively wetter. The alien was warm, less so than a person normally would be, but not enough so that it was unnerving. He glanced down after a few more moments of just rubbing at him, about to make a quip about his lack of dick when he noticed that there was the beginning of a black tentacle peeking out of the upper part of the slit between his legs. 

He moved his fingers up to it, rubbing at it a bit before tugging it lightly to see the other’s reaction. Yellow hissed quietly at that and it fully slipped out after a bit more coaxing from Red. The tentacle wiggled against the impostor’s stomach for a few moments, leaving slick trails in its wake. The appendage was thicker at the bottom and tapered off into a blunt point at the end. It looked about 7 inches long, but Red wasn’t very interested in it. He moved his hand down under the tentacle, rubbing between the impostor’s thighs some more.

“Is this a hole?” He mumbled, pausing his ministrations. Yellow nodded hastily, squeezing Red’s arm. Smirking, he moved two fingers to press inside, making Yellow let out another throaty alien sound. It was weird, but not weird enough to kill Red’s boner, which was presently pressing against Yellow’s leg. After moving them around for a few seconds he retracted his fingers, deciding that the imposteor felt ready enough. 

Hastily, Red unzipped his own suit and quickly got himself out of his pants. He pressed back up against Yellow after that, angling his cock where it was just beginning to press into him. “You want this, right?” He asked, more for his own ego than anything. 

“Yessir,” Yellow slurred out, partially muffled by Red’s shoulder. 

Red pressed up immediately after that, sliding into the alien in one swift movement. He groaned lowly, squeezing Yellow’s hip with his now free hand as the other warbled quietly. It inflated Red’s pride seeing how he had gone from indifferent to being like this, clenching around him while holding a similar death grip on his arm. He pulled back to thrust into Yellow, which seemed to startle the impostor, making him squeak. Red paused, but aside from that Yellow didn’t protest so he continued. It was a bit awkward due to their position, but he didn’t mind too much, it still felt good. 

Red glanced back down to Yellow’s tentacle as he continued bucking into him, watching it squirm against his stomach. He neglected it for now, maybe he would focus on the impostor more another time, but for now all he cared about was reaching his own release. He hadn’t expected to last long, having been pent up, and soon felt the familiar heat coiling in his stomach as his movements became more jerky and less controlled. 

Biting his lip and groaning, Red’s hips surged up one last time as he came, finishing inside of the other. Yellow squeezed around him, inhaling sharply at the sensation. Red’s legs shook for a second and he didn’t move, leaning against the wall for a few moments with Yellow still pressed against him. He leaned down to rest his head on the impostor’s shoulder, watching as his tentacle retreated back into him slowly. Yellow hadn’t said anything about it, so Red assumed he must not mind that he hadn’t reached his own climax.

“Come on.” Red mumbled once his aftershocks had died off, patting Yellow on the shoulder. He yawned. “I want you to call a meeting and confess.” He felt Yellow’s now limp grip tighten on his arm tighten momentarily. “Relax. I won’t let them throw you out. Everyone trusts me, they wouldn’t vote against me… I’m a man of my word. I’ll make sure you stay safe, as long as you play by my rules. Oh, and as long as you’re willing to do that again.” He added, half teasing, half serious as he pulled out of Yellow, a smirk twitching onto his lips when he whined at that.

Yellow leaned his head up, looking at Red with a slight smile. “I can do that.”


	3. Beginning of a Cycle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> porn time pt.2

“No. I’m not letting that _thing_ stay here. It almost killed Blue, not to mention Brown-”

“He’s not even the impostor who attacked her.” Red cut Pink off. He jabbed Yellow in the side, making him flinch. “Why don’t you tell everyone who the other impostor is, maybe win some votes in your favor.”

Yellow gulped, staring down at the table. “It’s Orange.”

Everyone stayed silent for a moment. Barely anyone moved, but it was obvious all eyes were watching Orange under their visors.

Yellow seemed to be the first to notice the quiet growl Orange had started emitting, and he pressed against Red’s side. The low rumbling sound could have been mistaken for an engine until it finally flared up into a full growl as Orange stood, slamming their hands on the table. “Are you fucking serious. I thought this was some kind of suicide attempt, not you trying to sabotage the whole mission.” They turned to Pink swiftly, black claws ripping from the hands of their suit. 

She jerked back and moved to stand, reaching for her gun. 

Orange’s growl flared up throatily as they swiped at Pink, knocking the gun out of her hand. She yelped quietly, grabbing at her wrist as her gun skittered across the floor. The arm of her suit had been sliced open, and she held her now bleeding wrist. 

The middle section of Orange’s suit began to split as they closed in on Pink, grabbing both her hands. “I shouldn’t have let myself get paired up with idiot-” 

A gunshot rang out, the silencer doing little to quiet it as it resounded against the metal walls of the ship. Orange’s voice cut out and slurred into a low, otherworldly, gurgle. They began to slump forward, and Pink wretched her arm free. The momentum pushed Orange forward to land on the edge of the table with a dull thud. Their claws flexed limply a few more times until the dying growl finally fell silent. 

“Well.” Red was the first to speak up as he tucked his handgun back into its holster. “You’re lucky I was so quick to act.” He glanced over everyone else at the table. He and Pink were the only crewmates present who were used to this type of situation. Brown and Blue would have been as well, but neither of them were in attendance. Orange had been smart in who they had picked off, but obviously not smart enough to predict this. Everyone looked pretty tense, but no one other than Pink had been harmed. Red cocked a brow under his mask, eyes settling on her. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine… Let's just get rid of it.”

Yellow stared at the smear of black across the table that had been left after Red and Pink had picked up Orange’s body, zoning out. He barely registered the sound of the airlock being opened, only snapping back to the present at the feeling of Red running a hand down his back as he sat down again once he was done. He couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be comforting or not. 

“How the hell are you so sure this isn’t all just a plan to trick us into trusting it.” Pink finally spoke up quietly, still holding onto her wrist. Her voice was barely audible under her helmet. 

Red snarked. “Please. I’ve been in the military enough to be able to tell when someone’s lying.” He wrapped an arm around Yellow’s shoulders, squeezing him too tightly to be comfortable. “If anything happens after this feel free to hold me liable. But until you do have real proof to prove my judgement was wrong I wouldn’t recommend questioning it.” After squeezing Yellow one more time, Red moved his hands back in front of him, cracking his knuckles. His voice had dropped. “Now, does anyone, other than Pink, have an issue with keeping Yellow here?” 

Green seemed indifferent, shrugging. While Lime seemed somewhat on edge, he still shook his head. White shook his head as well, along with Black, who looked just a bit more eager in his agreement to keep Yellow here. Of course the two of them would be fine with this. They probably saw this all as some research opportunity. Red wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of them came and tried to look at Yellow in the near future. It almost made him jealous, but he ignored the feeling. For now.

“Alright. So it’s decided. Yellow will stay.”

\-----

“You did good,” Red murmured once he had taken their helmets off again. He had practically drug Yellow back to his quarters once they had gotten away from the meeting.

“I didn’t really do anything-”

“You did what I told you to. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do.” 

Yellow opened his mouth for a moment, before closing it again immediately as Red pressed closer to him, hands running down his sides. 

“Again?” Yellow mumbled, “I thought humans had a refractory period,”

Red laughed, “It’s been long enough. Besides, you’ve been so cooperative thus far.”

“Did you really get worked up over killing Orange?” Yellow asked quietly, cocking his head. 

“Partially.” Red huffed out. “And what of it? You’re a fucking alien that was sent here to kill us. You don’t have room to talk.”

“I just didn’t think humans were inclined to… Feel that way after doing something like that.”

“Well I don’t suppose your kind are supposed to be cowards like you are they?” He grit out, voice dropping.

Yellow swallowed. He didn’t want to irritate Red. “No sir.”

That seemed to appease him. Red smirked, moving his hands down lower. He gripped Yellow’s hips for a moment, then ran one hand back up to begin unzipping his suit. He was slower this time, fully sliding the suit down Yellow’s shoulders and leaving him in only his underclothes. Humming to himself, Red looked him over one more time before stepping back. “Strip, then go sit on the bed.” 

He nodded, discarding the rest of his clothes in a small pile, not bothering to fold anything. Red, on the other hand, seemed to care more about his. Yellow sat on the edge of his bed, watching Red fold his uniform. He noted that Red’s back was turned to him. He didn’t know if it was a sign of trust or just to be cocky, but he assumed the latter. 

Once Red was done, he circled back around the room, flicking off the overhead light. 

Yellow blinked a few times. His eyes adjusted to see in the dark fast enough to see Red’s startled expression as he looked over at him. 

Red advanced towards him, “You really do glow,” He mumbled.

There was a large oval shaped spot of color in the middle of Yellow’s chest. A few smaller ovals continued down his chest, decreasing in size. Similarly to his cheeks, his shoulders and hips were also dappled with glowing spots of varying sizes. 

It was, admittedly, interesting, but Red had more pressing things on his mind at the moment. He was still semi hard from the adrenaline rush, which took the forefront of his thoughts.

Biting his lip, Yellow watched as Red set his gun down on the side table. He almost said something about it, but he didn’t want to provide reason for any suspicions Red still had about him. 

Red flicked on a lamp, giving the impostor a few seconds to readjust before getting back to the task at hand. He looked him over in the dim light, noting that the rest of his body was the same pale grey as his face, save for his hands and feet. His forearms had speckles of dark grey that blended into darker shades down his arm, eventually leading into inky black at his fingers. His shins had the same effect. There was also a stripe of black down his back. He almost asked about the line of ‘teeth’ across his midsection, but ignored it for now. “Lay down,” He said quietly once he was satisfied, watching the other to see if he was going to keep being cooperative. 

Yellow quickly did as he was told. He didn’t miss the slight smirk from Red as he did so. If anything, Yellow appreciated having some form of instruction. He wasn’t exactly experienced with this. 

He looked up at the ceiling as Red moved over him, shivering despite how hot Red’s hands were as they began to prod at him. His fingers slipped into him quickly and with no warning this time, causing Yellow’s breath to hitch. A third quickly moved to press in alongside the initial two. After a moment of that, Red re-angled his wrist, pressing all three deeper.

“Red-” Yellow chirped, grabbing at the bed with one hand as the other shot out to grab at the human.

Red hissed quietly, pulling back from him completely as he felt Yellow’s claws dig into his shoulder. 

Yellow’s eyes shot open and he immediately cowered back against the bed, staring up at Red. “I’m sorry- Sir, I didn’t mean to-”

Red shot him a glare and Yellow snapped his mouth closed, watching as the man wiped his hand off on the bed before standing up and going over to his closet. He came back over to him within a few seconds, expression still impossible to read.

“Give me your hands.” Red ordered, voice low. 

Yellow did as he was told, staying quiet for a few moments as he watched Red begin to wrap the tie he had retrieved around them. “Is this cust-”

“Customary? No. But people do it, and I don’t feel like having your claws digging into me, especially not if you do something like what Orange did earlier.” Red finished knotting the tie around his wrists before glancing down to meet Yellow's eyes. His eyes quickly flicked back up to his wrists. “Does it feel alright.”

“Just odd. It doesn’t hurt if that’s what you’re asking.” Yellow moved his fingers a few times, trying to figure out what to do with his arms and eventually putting them above his head. He didn’t mention that if he wanted to he could get out of the bonds at any time he wanted. Red was most likely already aware anyway, considering that he wasn’t stupid. 

Red stared him down for a second. “You’re lucky I didn’t make it hurt. Just behave yourself” 

Yellow blinked up at Red a few times, “Yes sir,” 

The corner of Red’s mouth twitched at that, and Yellow relaxed some as the other went back to his previous position between his legs. 

Red fell quiet after that, just listening to the noises Yellow made as he fingered him. He could feel how tense the other was and spent a few minutes just doing that to try to get him to calm down again. He didn’t want to get bitten if he surprised the impostor later on. Red began lazily stroking himself with his free hand, giving the alien a few experimental strokes as well once his tentacle had come out again. Now that there was nothing obstructing it, Red could see that there were a few smaller tentacles at the base of the slit. He ran his fingers through them to play with them briefly, eliciting a small noise from the alien. It didn’t take long for him to get bored of that and he pressed his fingers back inside of Yellow, curling them a few more times before he pulled back to look at him. His cock was fully hard now, and Yellow seemed to have detensed significantly. 

At the loss of all stimulation, Yellow opened his eyes again, cocking his head slightly and watching Red as he met his eyes. 

Red just stared at him for a moment, glad that he was staying quiet. The way his face still had a slight yellow glow to it in the dim light made him look ethereal. Shaking that thought off, he cleared his throat. “Are you ready?” 

Yellow blinked a few times. Red didn’t really have any need to ask but he decided to overlook that. He nodded, “Yessir,” his voice was somewhat slurred and had a slight unnatural tone to it. 

Red smiled to himself at that, looking away from Yellow’s face to move his attention to his legs. He pulled one of them up with little resistance. The impostor just looked confused, not in pain at all. Red took this as an ‘okay’ and hooked one of Yellow’s legs over his shoulder as he pressed forward. He stroked himself a few more times before pressing forward into Yellow. 

He squeaked at that, fingers twisting around each other as he strained against the tie for the first time. The angle definitely helped Red get deeper than he had before. Red also seemed to notice the difference as he sank in, groaning.

He stayed like that for a few seconds, before adjusting their position. Angling his knees under Yellows’ back slightly, he lifted him up to press deeper. The impostor didn’t seem to have any complaints, only making small warbling noises as Red shifted into him further. He pressed Yellow’s leg down some as he started thrusting into him from that position, practically folding Yellow in half. He tried to pace himself, but after a few slow thrusts his cock was aching. As he began to pick up the pace, Red leaned forward, planting one hand next to Yellow’s head to hold himself up. He was tall enough that the frills on the alien’s face didn’t bother him. 

Yellow, meanwhile, was unable to do much else but go with it. He wasn’t used to anything like this, and despite it feeling like Red was crushing him he couldn’t help but feel loopy off of pleasure. “Please-” He managed to croak out, ringing his hands together. 

Red barely caught the small plea mixed into the other noises Yellow was making, but he did, and snaked his free hand around the impostor’s leg to grab at his cock. The tentacle immediately wrapped around his hand. He ran his fingers over it, causing Yellow to finally make a noise that sounded somewhat close to a human moan. He continued fucking into the alien as he stroked him, finding that he appreciated the noises he made, despite how odd they were. 

“Red…. Sir-” Yellow choked out, squirming. He made a trilling sound and bucked back against Red and came, clenching hard around his cock as his own spilled over his stomach with clear fluid. 

Red hadn’t been expecting it and his hips stuttered forward one more time as he let out a guttural moan, cumming soon after Yellow, pushed over the edge by how tight he had gotten. He sat there, panting, for about a minute before he finally moved to pull out of Yellow. He unhooked the other’s leg from his shoulder and stretched. 

Yellow whimpered quietly at the loss but didn’t move, still trying to even out his heartrate. He blinked up at Red as he leaned over him, untying the tie that was still around his wrists. Red met his eyes for a moment, then looked away and yawned.

“You’re free to return to your own quarters, just meet me tomorrow morning. 8am sharp. I’ll be staying with you for at least a few days.”

“Oh. Right.” Yellow hesitated before he sat up, sitting next to red for a moment. He had to fight the urge to lean against him. Maybe cuddling after these sorts of activities wasn’t a human thing. He didn’t think it was though, it was probably just because this was Red. He didn’t want to irritate the other. This was all business to him. 

Yellow eventually got up and went to redress so he could leave. They had both fallen into a comfortable silence. Yellow turned once he was done, however, looking at Red who stared back at him. “Goodnight sir.” Red didn’t say anything back to him, but he was near positive he’d seen his lips quirk up. 

Red laid down and rolled onto his side and watched Yellow leave, not paying enough attention to notice that he walked out in the opposite direction of his own room. 


	4. Imperfect Timing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not immune to the common alien trope

Everything had been fine for the past week. 

Yellow didn’t seem to have complaints about anything, or if he did he never aired his grievances. He’d followed Red everywhere, perfectly under his thumb. 

It had made him near impossible to be mad at him, up until now at least. Recently he’d been letting Yellow go off on his own more, once he had been sure the impostor didn’t pose a threat to anyone. Essentially, Red has made his only rule to reconvene with him every night. A rule that he had now broken for the first time. Yellow was supposed to meet him half an hour ago, and considering how he had been early every time before this Red felt fully justified in his anger. He stormed through the halls, trying to find Yellow, or at the very least a hint of his whereabouts. 

Upon seeing that the door to electrical was closed, he felt a slight adrenaline rush, growing more irritated than he had been to begin with. Yellow was hiding from him. Before he had time to fully think out a plan of action, he had moved to pound on the door. He couldn’t hear anything inside aside from the echo of the metal, but it didn’t deter him. “Get the fuck out here and explain yourself.” Red practically snarled at the closed door, punctuating his sentence by giving it a few more hard knocks. 

“Red?” 

He spun around at that, forcing himself to not immediately snap at White, who had Black in toe. He didn’t know why the two of them would be in this wing to begin with but he didn’t have time to worry about it now. 

“Are you… Doing alright?” White asked, caution apparent in his voice. 

“Yellow’s in there. I’m fucking positive, who the hell else would lock themselves in electrical.”

White frowned to himself, “Well banging on the door’s probably just scaring him… Would you mind if I try talking to him?” He hadn’t seen much of Yellow lately, none of them really had, save for Red of course. But he has a knack for calming people down and hoped he could get Red to calm down as well. 

Red grimaced. He didn’t want to admit it but he knew White was right. “Fine,” He finally bit out.

White stepped up to the door. He rapped at the metal lightly, a stark contrast to Red’s banging. “Yellow? It would be in your best interest if you just open the door now, I’m sure we can work this out.” He stood there for a moment, pursing his lips. After a few moments the door slid open. Red immediately pressed inside. He and Black followed. 

Red rounded the corner of the panel, freezing when he saw Yellow in the back corner, intertwined with someone. They were both panting quietly, helmets discarded. Yellow barely reacted to him being there. It was like he hadn’t even noticed. Even in the dim lights it was easy to tell who he was with, considering his cheeks were glowing much like Yellow’s did, except that they were glowing a bright, light green color, complimenting his suit. 

Red just stared at the two of them for a moment. He felt his eye twitch. There was another impostor. Yellow had lied to him, had been lying to him this whole time. And now had the audacity to be wrapped around him, obviously disheveled. Red drew his gun, silently aiming it at Lime. 

The tablet Lime had used to open the doors clattered to the floor as he latched onto Yellow, a low growl flaring up in his throat. Both of them were now shoved against the wall as hard as they possibly could be. 

Red didn’t care that Lime was growling. What he did care about was that Yellow also was. Yellow had never gotten anywhere close to acting truly hostile towards him. Somehow that irritated him the most out of the whole situation. If White and Black hadn’t been behind him he was near certain he would’ve blown out the other impostors brains out right then and there. “Would you mind explaining what the fuck is going on here.” His voice seemed to momentarily snap Yellow out of his dazed state. 

“He hasn’t done anything-” Yellow blurted out, “No one’s gotten hurt, nothing’s even gotten sabotaged. He’s gone by the same rules I have- We just want to live- Sir.” It took Yellow a great amount of willpower to get words out. His chest heaved as a slight movement from Red made him refocus on how he was currently staring down the barrel of a gun. His thoughts went blurry once again as instinct forced a growl from his throat. 

Red noticed Yellow’s pupils shrunk into slits as his growl picked back up. He didn't remember ever seeing them do that before. 

“I think that might be making their instincts flare up.” White spoke up quietly, but firmly, from behind him. A perfect mediator's voice. Red grit his teeth. His finger felt itchy against the trigger but he reluctantly lowered the gun to his side. However, he didn’t reholster it. 

“Fine.” He snapped out, turning back to White for a moment before refocusing his attention on the impostors in front of them. “Explain yourself then.”

Yellow didn’t say anything for a moment, just panted quietly. His cheeks flushed darker than they already were as he looked up at Red ashamedly, cheeks filling out to the point that they were nearly black. He swallowed thickly before finally choking something out, “I’m in heat, sir. I wasn’t supposed to go into it for,” He paused, squeezing his eyes shut as if in pain, “About a month-” Yellow’s voice cut off into a quiet whine and pressed his face against Lime’s neck behind his frill. 

“Our species doesn't have recreational sex.” Lime cut in, grip tightening on Yellow's shoulder, “Even without the proper pheromones, you must have engaged him sexually enough to trigger his heat early, and his triggered mine.”

Red scowled, shoving his gun back in the holster in order to cross his arms. “Yellow.” He paused, waiting until the impostor in question actually looked up before continuing, “Why exactly did you come to Lime instead of me?”

Yellow opened and closed his mouth a few times, before slurring out a quiet ‘I’m sorry’.

Lime nuzzled him again before looking back up. “You’re biologically incapable of sating it, Red. I’m his partner for this. I have been for- years.”

“So what you’re telling me is he lied both about you being here  _ and  _ that he’s sleeping with someone else.”

Lime hesitated, trying not to lash out and make Red more upset than he already was. “It’s not a regular thing. Outside of our heats our relationship is purely platonic-”

Red cut him off, “Actually, right now I’m more concerned about why the hell he can barely speak for himself.”

“He’s been in heat longer than I have. I believe he mentioned that it had been affecting him about half of the day earlier,” Lime paused as Yellow nodded. "Meaning it’s almost at the peak. Simply put, it’s hurting him, making it hard to think.”

Red huffed. “So how exactly is any of this platonic?”

Lime closed his eyes for a moment before speaking, trying to focus. “I know you don’t have any human equivalent of this, but having a partner for  _ this  _ is a necessity and it isn’t uncommon. It’s not safe to be alone like this,” He nuzzled Yellow when he whined again. “If we don't have a partner to nullify them, our pheromones are essentially a beacon for others, including those literally twice our size. That could kill us. I’m aware that’s not a possibility here, but it’s still agonizing to go through alone; having a partner cuts the effects.”

“I didn’t think you’d find out sir-” Yellow spoke up quietly, trying to placate Red, “I thought I could just get it over with now and you wouldn’t have to know-”

“Know what? That you lied to me?”

“We both just want to live.” He whined, “Lime didn’t take this job voluntarily either. I couldn’t let him get killed…” Yellow looked up at him with glazed eyes. His voice was quivering. “I’m sorry.”

Red stared back at Yellow for a moment, not saying anything. “Fine. Just fuck him and get this over with then. But I won’t tolerate you lying again.” He looked away from Yellow, taking interest in a panel on the wall. Letting him get off so easy made Red feel like he was getting soft. Maybe he was. He didn’t feel like he could actually do anything to harm Yellow when he looked at him like this, wide eyed and dazed. 

“Red…” White mumbled, tapping Red on the shoulder sheepishly. 

He turned to look at the scientist as he responded, voice steeled into boredom, “Yes?”

White cleared his throat, “Assuming you were planning on watching them, would you mind if we stayed as well? I don’t really think either of them is sound enough of mind to care at the moment...”

“We don’t know much about their species, this could be valuable information.” Black added.

Red rolled his eyes. “Sounds great. I’m sure that’ll make this less weird than it already is.” This wasn’t information they actually needed for anything, he knew that much. But maybe it _would_ somehow make this more palatable if they were also there. He was pretty sure White was still concerned about him hurting one of the impostors too, and he didn’t feel like arguing with him about that at the moment.

White stepped in front of Red, “Would you two prefer to move somewhere else? It’s not far to Medbay, we could push two of the beds together for you, that would probably be more comfortable than the floor here.”

Lime was starting to look more spaced out now as well, but he did look up to White. Yellow just stayed with his face pressed into the other’s neck. “You’re not leaving?”

“Preferably not.” White spoke before Red could say anything. 

Lime made a low sound of discomfort, but fell quiet as Yellow nuzzled into his neck, squeezing at him. He sighed, “We can go through the vents. It’ll be easier than walking.” 

“You both better be in medbay by the time we get there.” Red muttered quietly, turning to leave as Yellow moved to start prying off the vent cover. 

\-----

White spoke up quietly as he and Black followed Red into the hallway. “You could really do to be less aggressive with him.” 

“Lying about Lime could’ve gotten someone killed, that's reason enough to be harsh.” Red sneered, not bothering to look back to White. They all fell quiet after that. The atmosphere was still tense, but Red didn’t mind it. 

He was the first to step into Medbay. It immediately set his teeth on edge when he didn’t see either impostor when he walked in, but after stepping in further he saw that they were indeed there. 

They were clinging to each other again, neither having gotten up from the floor. 

After seeing that they were actually there, Red went back to the wall and punched in a code to close the door. 

“Here,” White mumbled, more to himself than anything, as he stepped in front of Red and hastily moved to push two of the cots together like he had said he would. 

Lime hesitated, watching the humans for a few moments as they all moved to the opposite wall. They all still had their helmets on and he didn’t know if that made him feel better about the situation because it was less personal, or if the uncanniness made everything worse. A quiet, desperate whine from Yellow reminded him that he didn’t really have any other options, so he climbed on to the bed, practically dragging the other impostor with him. He was still slightly tense, it wasn’t exactly easy to get back into things while he was being watched. Once Yellow was fully on top of him, however, his thoughts grew foggy and he stopped caring.

Yellow made a soft trilling sound and nuzzled at Lime’s face for a few seconds, trying to calm him down. He kissed him lightly once, but at this point just contact was barely sating his heat and he practically shoved his tongue into Lime’s mouth soon after. He kissed the other sloppily, making their teeth click together. After a minute of that they were both drooling quite a bit, but neither seemed to care. 

Red watched them, realizing he hadn’t ever noticed how long Yellow’s tongue actually was before. He also realized that he hadn’t ever kissed Yellow before. While it looked like kissing him like this was essentially getting throatfucked by his tongue, which he knew he wouldn’t find enjoyable, he still couldn't stop feeling jealous watching him do this with someone other than him. 

Whining, Yellow finally pulled back and unzipped the front of his suit, somewhat erratically getting it off enough to slide his pants down. Lime arched his back up into Yellow, allowing him to get his suit off enough to have access as well. Yellow fell forward again after that, just grinding against Lime as he went back to kissing him. Both of their tentacles were already out, and they coiled together, rubbing up against their midsections. 

It didn’t take long before that wasn’t satisfying enough and Yellow sat back up some, whining quietly as he did so. With a bit of maneuvering, he lined them up in a way that they could both penetrate the other. 

Lime grabbed at Yellow’s hips as he started moving down. He growled quietly, the tone making it obvious that he wasn’t upset. Their cocks were intertwined slightly to give them both access to each other. The added simulation as Lime rubbed against him made Yellow let out a quiet trill. He stayed like that for a moment where they were both half way inside each other until it became agonizing and he finally moved down all the way. They both arched up against the other as Yellow finally pushed their hips flush together. He trilled again, loudly. Lime hesitated, making a quiet clicking sound that managed to sound like a question. Yellow clicked back at him quickly, nuzzling him and rubbing their frills together in the process. 

Red couldn’t remember ever hearing Yellow click like that before. 

Black seemed to notice it as well, and jotted down a note. 

Red bit back a laugh when he glanced over and saw that Black was actually taking notes on this. He rolled his eyes, focusing his attention back on the impostors and trying to ignore the feeling of jealousy gnawing at him. 

Lime bit at Yellow’s shoulder then licked at the spot a few times, whining in unison with the other alien as he pressed up against him. With their hips fully pressed together the smaller tentacles near the bottom intertwined. Aside from slightly shifting against each other and grabbing at one another, there wasn't much exterior movement from either of them. However, it was obvious they were doing something from the way they were progressively growing louder. 

They were mostly making noises Red had heard from Yellow before, save for his occasional clicking. 

It didn't take long before Yellow came with a squeak, rutting down against Lime a few more times until Lime made a similar noise and bucked up into him once more before going limp. His hands slid off of Yellow’s hips as the smaller impostor leaned down onto his chest fully. They both laid there, panting. 

Once he seemed to have recovered some, Yellow slid over to the side, pressing up against Lime’s side. Likewise, Lime rolled over to face him. They didn’t bother to clean themselves up at all. The feeling of clinginess was still intense, arguably more so than earlier. Lime made a low clicking sound as Yellow nuzzled at his neck, and soon after he pressed his face against Yellow’s as well. Neither of them seemed to remember anyone else was in the room. 

It didn’t take long before their breathing evened out, only taking a few minutes before the two impostors had obviously fallen asleep. 

Black made one last note before breaking their silence. He coughed quietly, “That was… fascinating, I’m grateful for the opportunity, Red.” He nodded curtly to him before turning to White with a slight wave, “And I’ll see you tomorrow as per usual.” He left hastily after that, leaving the door open. 

Red rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day as he watched Black’s awkward gait as he left. He stepped forward some and stared at the two impostors, feeling a stab of jealousy when he noticed that Yellow was smiling slightly. 

“Red.” White spoke up softly, touching his arm.

“What.” Red snapped, frowning as he turned partway to face White, knocking his hand off in the process. 

“Let him be.” 

“What gives you a say-”

“Please, he needs this. Besides, won’t it be more satisfying when he comes back to you on his own?”

Red’s gaze flicked over to the cot again before he looked back at White, staring at him for a moment before wordlessly leaving.

White let out a breath he had been holding in, then followed Red out, closing the door behind them. 


	5. Calm Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fluffier chapter because I wanted something nice before the next one

As White had predicted, Yellow had returned to Red the following morning. He had apologized profusely, as afraid of Red then as he had been when Red had initially cornered him. However, Red had been nicer than he had anticipated, just brushing him off rather than getting upset like Yellow had expected. He had made a few derogatory remarks about Yellow having ‘primitive biology’ and had gone back to having the impostor follow him more often, but aside from that he hadn’t seemed half as upset as Yellow had expected him to be. 

The only real change was how Red treated him at night. It wasn’t drastic, but it was noticeable, to Yellow at least. Of course Red’s actions were usually calculated so this was most likely deliberate. He had gotten rougher with him, and at the same time talked much less. After realizing the impostor could bruise, Red seemed to prioritize leaving Yellow with new ones every night. 

It didn’t bother him much. His shoulders had hurt at first, but it didn’t take very long to get used to it. It was a dull pain after all. After the second night of Red marking him up he had found himself thinking that the splotches of black looked nice under his normal mottled yellow spots. 

While it didn’t bother him much, he did find it odd that Red went out of his way to avoid eye contact. They hadn’t really been face to face before, so he hadn’t noticed the aversion, but now that Red would linger on his neck and shoulders it was obvious that he was purposely avoiding meeting his eyes. He wanted to ask about it, but ultimately never did. He couldn’t seem to muster the courage to ask Red a lot of things. 

What really did bother him was that it was starting to hurt more when Red kicked him out now. The first night he had been back with him he had thought it might have just been from residual hormones making him feel more clingy, but when the feeling didn’t lessen in the days following he started getting worried. 

Red was acting more possessive of him but also acting like he was trying to detach himself at the same time. The constant contradiction had left him feeling disoriented and confused. Another thing he kept telling himself he would bring up to Red but never did. 

\-----

Yellow was sitting on the edge of Red’s bed, looking at the black rings around his wrists. He was tired. This had been tiring him out more and more lately, not physically so much as mentally and emotionally. His thoughts felt cloudy. He could rationalize why Red made him leave, but something deeper, maybe instinctual, made him feel like he was desperately missing something in doing so. 

Red, who was already laying down, nudged him with his knee, making Yellow flinch. “Get up. I haven’t given you a reason not to walk yet.” He grumbled. 

Yellow looked over to him. Red looked bored.

Red huffed, watching the impostor open and close his mouth like he was going to say something before looking back down at his hands. “Is something wrong?” He said testily.

“No sir… I’m just tired.” Yellow glanced back over to him, hoping he might offer to let him stay. Red wasn’t looking at him anymore. 

“You better get back to your quarters then.” 

Yellow frowned. His wrists hurt. 

He tried to focus on that instead of thinking about anything else as he got redressed. He bid Red goodnight as he always did, leaving almost immediately after saying anything, not wanting to be met with silence. 

\-----

“Yellow? What are you doing out so late?” White watched as the impostor jerkily stopped, nearly dropping his helmet as he looked up from the ground to him. He frowned to himself. He didn’t want to stress Yellow out any more than he already was. That was the whole reason he had planned to try to talk to him at night. He just wanted to be able to check in on him. Hold an intervention of sorts. Largely because he didn’t want to have to ask Red to talk to him during the day and start something.

“Just… heading back to my room.” Yellow mumbled, looking back down as he scuffed his shoe against the ground. 

He was dodging the question, but White didn’t press him any further. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on with him and Red, everyone knew at this point. 

“Well this is convenient then. I’ve been meaning to talk to you, just couldn’t find the time.” He wavered, watching the alien closely. He seemed to have perked up some. “Would you like to join me in my room for a few minutes? 

Yellow hesitated, before nodding. He followed White down the hall to his room after that, glancing behind him before following him into the room. 

White turned on a lamp after he shut the door. He didn’t think it was coincidental that both of the impostors both preferred working in dim areas, and he wanted to make Yellow as comfortable as he could. He took off his helmet after that, then turned to look at the impostor, who had set his helmet on the floor. White didn’t say anything about that, just sat on his bed and patted the spot next to him. “You can sit down, if you like. Or you can use the chair at my desk if you’d prefer that.” 

Yellow blinked at him for a moment, before regaining his bearings and sitting next to White. He wasn’t used to offers rather than orders.

“Has anything been bothering you lately?” White spoke up once Yellow had settled down some. 

He shook his head quickly. Too quickly. Biting his tongue, Yellow looked down at the floor. 

White stayed quiet, just watching the alien for a few seconds. “Are you sure? You don’t have to lie to me. I won’t be mad.” He saw Yellow’s eyes flick over to him. “Everything you say is confidential.” He added, “I’m not going to tell anyone.” 

Yellow sighed, drawing his arms up around his sides. He glanced over to White. “Why do you think something’s wrong?” If White had noticed something then maybe Red would too if it continued to get worse. The last thing he wanted was to have to try to explain this to Red. Maybe if he knew everything that seemed off he could try harder to hide it. 

His response surprised White. He had expected Yellow to give in immediately. He wasn’t upset, however. “You’ve seemed sluggish lately. I do keep tabs on everyone, I am the main medic after all. But I will admit I’ve been watching you and Lime more closely lately, and he seems to be acting normal again. You, not so much.” 

“I guess you’re right…” Yellow sighed, looking down at his hands. “I have been feeling tired more than usual.”

“Do you know why?”

He shook his head. This time he wasn’t lying, not fully at least. He knew it had to do mostly with Red, but he couldn’t pin it on a single thing and didn’t want to have to explain that.

White sighed, keeping his voice quiet. “It’s Red, isn’t it?” Yellow seemed to shrink down at that. His silence was enough of a confirmation that his suspicions had been correct. “He hasn’t been treating you well.” 

“He has.” Yellow cut in, “He hasn’t let me get hurt, he did everything he promised to.” His voice grew weaker before he eventually fell quiet. He didn’t know why he felt the need to defend Red. White was right about him being the reason he felt like this. 

White just watched Yellow pityingly, letting him speak. “That’s just the bare minimum. I wouldn’t say that constitutes as treating you well.” 

He frowned, hugging himself harder. 

“Yellow… You’re a pretty little thing- No,” He cut himself off, “I’m sorry, you’re not a thing. You’re a person. Well not exactly ‘person’ but you’re acting like one and you deserve to be treated as such.” His voice softened. “He’s using you, and it’s obviously not good for you.” 

Yellow glanced up at White. He wanted to feel bitter about it, he really did, he knew that White was right, but he just couldn’t manage to. He blinked a few times. His eyes felt wet. 

White sighed quietly to himself, cautiously reaching over to put a hand on the impostors shoulder. It was a relief when Yellow didn’t flinch, just leaned against him slightly. He spoke up, voice soft. “You can talk about it if you feel comfortable. That usually helps.” Yellow was quiet for a few minutes, White was beginning to think he wasn’t going to say anything. 

“It  _ hurts _ .” He finally spoke up, voice small. “It feels like he’s rejecting me every time he tells me to leave… Like I did something wrong. Before he used to do little things that made it seem like he might actually care, even if only a little bit. Now he just acts like I’m not there at all.” It wasn’t entirely like that though. It was more like Red knew he was there but didn’t care about him enough to acknowledge that he could feel things too. Yellow didn’t think he could get that out without breaking down, so he left it out. But just because he wasn’t saying it didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking about it. His thoughts were racing and before he could think not to he had let out a dry sob, voice gaining a more warbly tone than it usually did. “I wish he cared.”

White leaned forward at that, hugging the other lightly, giving him the ability to pull away easily if he wanted to. Yellow didn’t pull back at all, just sagged forward against him. “I’m sorry.” White mumbled as he squeezed him lightly, resting his chin on the alien's shoulder. 

Yellow frowned. That was an odd thing to say. White hadn’t done anything wrong after all, but he didn’t question it. Nor did he question why he was hugging him. He appreciated the surrogate physical comfort, slowly wrapping his arms up around the human’s shoulder blades. 

White could feel Yellow clenching and unclenching his fists against his back. “If you need to cry you can. I won’t hold it against you.” 

“I can’t-” Yellow said hastily, voice obviously clipped. He was struggling not to. “It’s not allowed- They can have you killed for signs of weaknesses like that-”

“Yellow.” White’s voice was even, disarming. “You’re not there now, no one is going to hurt you for crying here.” 

White was right of course. What he had done already made him the equivalent of a war criminal on his home planet. He didn’t have to worry about their rules or going back anymore. But the indoctrinated idea was still hard to shake. He shuddered, pressing his face into White’s shoulder as he finally closed his eyes closed hard enough to squeeze tears out. 

Once he had started crying it felt like he couldn’t stop. White just held him. He had begun rubbing his back lightly, occasionally saying quiet things that Yellow couldn't really pay attention to, but White’s voice was calming nonetheless. 

After what had felt like forever to Yellow, but had, in reality, only been a few minutes he had calmed down some. He didn’t make any attempt to move, just stayed in White’s arms, sniffling quietly. 

“C’mere,” White murmured, holding onto Yellow as he leaned over slowly until they were both lying down. 

Yellow was pleased by this and closed his eyes for a moment, finally smiling slightly. He was beginning to feel better, but it didn’t last long. His eyes snapped back open after a few minutes and he tensed up some. “White…” he hesitated.

“Is everything alright?”

He nodded. “Yes, but I was just wondering what you want in return for doing this...:”

White blinked, then sighed. “I don’t expect anything, I’m not doing this for myself; I’m doing this for you. I want you to feel better.” He realized that Red was the only human Yellow had actually had close contact with. “Not many people are like Red in that regard, he’s just hardheaded and likes to be overly tactical about things.”

The reassurance calmed Yellow back down and he nuzzled up against White’s chest, closing his eyes again. The human was warmer than Lime. It was nice. Maybe Red  _ wasn’t  _ the only person who could make him feel safe.

White kept rubbing small circles onto Yellow’s back, staying like that until he was sure the impostor had fallen asleep before finally allowing himself to sleep as well. 

\-----

Yellow made it into a habit to see White after that night, and it had, admittedly, helped some. But he still felt partially drained, the feeling never seemed to go away fully. Some nights when he was pressed up against White he found himself wishing it was Red. It made him feel doubly guilty. 


	6. Locked and Loaded

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took off no warnings apply for this one so mind the tags. Or don't if you want a predictable surprise. 
> 
> (Author does not support or condone actions taken in this chapter.)

“Come over here.” 

Yellow whipped around, immediately set on edge. Red seemed to dislike breaks in routine, and now he was voluntarily breaking his own. The human usually let him come over on his own. He seemed to like that. But he wasn’t undressed yet, and neither was Red, who, ever concerned with status, was in just his captain's uniform.

“I’m not ready yet, sir-” 

“I know you’re not done, that doesn't matter right now. I need to talk to you.”

He frowned slightly, Red’s words made him want to hesitate. Nonetheless, he went over to the other, albeit reluctantly. Yellow was standing between him and the bed and he couldn’t help but feel trapped as Red moved closer to him. 

“So. Who is it that you’ve been going off to after me.” Red spoke up once Yellow had come closer to him, locking him in his gaze. It wasn’t a question, but rather an order to answer.

Yellow’s eyes widened, and he stepped back at that, hitting his legs on the side of Red’s bed. “I don’t know wh-”

“I’m not fucking stupid, Yellow. I  _ know  _ you’ve been seeing someone other than me. Am I not good enough for you? I allowed you to have Lime because I thought it would  _ help  _ you.” His voice grew lower as he continued, “I was trying to be  _ nice. _ Now I realize I should have just made you suffer through heat alone instead of letting you get this deluded idea that I’ll let shit like that fly anytime.” 

Yellow didn’t know if he wanted to apologize or scream at Red. Tell him that no, he wasn’t enough, that he  _ needed _ to see White to feel like anything other than a used shell of himself. He felt so close to his breaking point and yet, he couldn’t reach it. The only thing he was able to get out before Red cut him off was a quiet, “How-”

“The time you meet me in the mornings changed.” Red butted in, speaking like he had expected this. “You get there earlier than you used to, earlier than I get there. And it wasn’t just one time. It’s been every day the past five days now. So your sleep schedule must have changed, and what reason would there be for you to get up earlier unless you needed time to sneak around before anyone else was awake to see you? So, tell me who it is.”

“I’m sorry-” Yellow squeaked out. He wished he could back up more. Red hadn’t talked to him this much since before his heat. He had forgotten just how intimidating he was when he was upset. 

Red grit his teeth, growing irritated now. “Who. Is. It.” He snarled, surging forward and getting close to Yellow before grabbing his throat. The frills on the side of his face were barely flexible, but he was still able to get at his throat enough to squeeze what felt like the impostor's windpipe. He felt Yellow try to pull away, and tightened his grip reflexively, forcing a slight gurgling sound from his throat. Before he had time to react, it felt like the alien was melting away from him, then, immediately after, he felt a sharp pain in the top of his forearm, just a few inches away from his wrist. He locked up immediately, hissing quietly through his teeth. Aside from that he showed no signs of pain. Despite how well he was able to hide it, he was livid. 

Yellow’s teeth weren’t extremely sharp but he bit with enough force that they had easily sunk into Red’s arm, despite how tense his muscles were. The feeling of the human’s skin snapping apart under his teeth made him shudder. He hadn’t expected it to be that easy. The notion that he was able to harm Red marred his prior conviction that the other was somehow untouchable. He was still just a human. Yellow stood there, frozen, with his teeth dug into Red. The blood had begun to pool up around them.  _ At least  _ He thought,  _ I didn’t hit the bone.  _ Not that it would matter much. Red would be furious either way. It then dawned on him that Red still had yet to do anything. He had barely flinched, and now he had barely moved. It had to hurt, but he wasn’t showing any signs that he cared. 

“Get off of me.” Red finally spoke up. Perhaps he had noticed how still the impostor had become. His voice was lower than Yellow had ever heard it before. 

Yellow felt his heartrate shoot up, the full weight of what he had just done settling on him.That was the first time he had attacked Red, the first time he had gone against him at all, really. Reluctantly, he pulled away from the human, eyes locked onto the cuts in his arm that immediately started to fill in with blood once there was nothing in them. He felt a bead of that same blood roll down his chin but didn’t do anything, just kept staring down at Red’s arm, transfixed. He swallowed thickly, then flinched as his senses were overwhelmed with the flavor of iron. It wasn’t that it necessarily tasted bad. What bothered him was how the permeating taste served as a reminder that he had done that. 

The last thing in his mind was trying to hurt Red again. He didn’t think he could do something like that while he was sound of mind, the only reason he had at all was because he had gotten so stressed, so quickly, that it felt like he was acting on pure instinct. Of course he didn’t voice that. Red would have had no reason to believe him even if he did. 

However, Red seemed to pick up on his inability to do anything more as well, considering that he turned his back to Yellow, opening his dresser to root around in it. He didn’t even bother to wipe off the blood before wrapping the wounded part of his arm in a bandage, still facing away.

Yellow had quickly picked up on how the quieter he was the worse something was. And right now Red was deathly silent. He could practically hear the gears turning in his head. Those with the highest intelligence and the highest aggression were easily the most dangerous members of his own society. The same was true of Red. His breath hitched as the other finally turned back to him.

Red surged up and grabbed him again, but by his chin this time. He angled Yellow’s face up, forcing the impostor to meet his eyes. “Sometimes I really wish I’d just killed you.” He punctuated himself by pressing the muzzle of the handgun he had retrieved against Yellow’s neck.

Yellow whined at that. The feeling of metal pressing against his throat made him freeze up completely. Unlike before, this wasn’t a threat he had a chance at getting away from. If he so much as moved in a way that made it look like he was trying to fight back, or even get away, Red could pull the trigger. And he wasn’t the type of person to hesitate with that sort of thing. He was scared. While Red did intimidate him most of the time, more so as of late, he wasn’t actively scared of him unless he had his gun out. The gun that was now pressed against his skin. Briefly, he wondered if Red was able to feel his heart hammering through the metal. 

“Who is it.” Red asked again after a few moments of just watching the impostor. He felt the underside of Yellow’s throat move as he swallowed.

Yellow squeezed his eyes closed, trying to stay as still as possible. “White.” 

Red snorted quietly, rolling his eyes. “Of course it’s him. The fucking bleedingheart.”  _ Probably mad that I’ve been using him like this. _ He hesitated, looking back to Yellow. His voice dropped as he continued, “But he is a scientist you know, how are you so sure he’s not just trying to gain your trust so he can run experiments on you.”

Yellow frowned at that, nearly scowling. He broke eye contact, looking at the wall instead. A last small amount of rebellion flared up in his chest and he snapped, “He wouldn’t. Not all people are malicious like y-”

“Shut the fuck up.” Red snarled before Yellow could finish, jabbing the gun harder against his throat, as if to remind him it was there. He felt the alien shudder as he whimpered out a small apology. 

“Why are you taking everything out on me,” Yellow managed, biting his tongue afterwards, immediately regretting that he had said anything else. The inability to control what he said under stress was really becoming counterproductive.

“Really?” Red quirked a brow. “So quick to throw him under the bus after running off to him every night… you really are a coward.” 

“I didn’t mean it like that- Please don’t hurt him-” The thought of White getting hurt and it being his fault was almost worse than the thought of being hurt himself. 

“I’m not going to touch him,” Red snapped dismissively, “Maybe if it was Lime I would kill him but not White. He’s human. I can’t hurt him. You, however,” His voice dropped. “I can do whatever I want with and suffer no consequences. If I wanted to, I could hand you and Lime over to the government the second we get back to Earth and no one here could stop me. I guarantee anything they do to you would be ten times worse than anything I will. Or I could just kill the two of you and be over with this. Again, no one could stop me. It wouldn’t affect me at all.”  _ But that’s the issue; It would. _ He thought, frowning to himself. It annoyed him that he  _ didn’t _ truly want to hurt Yellow. He mentally reassured himself that it was just because of how useful he could be to him. 

Red looked at Yellow, still holding onto his face. After a few moments the impostor did look back up to meet his eyes. Slowly, he dropped both his hands to his sides, watching the other closely. Red kept his mouth straight as he spoke up again, calmer this time. “Why don’t you leave then? If you’re going to choose him over me.”

Yellow’s eyes widened. He didn’t know what Red was trying to accomplish. The way his voice was borderline soft now made him nervous. It was almost like he was purposefully toying with him. This wasn’t a choice. It couldn’t be. He was giving him the illusion of choice to see how he would respond. Yellow tore his eyes away from Red and looked down. “I can’t.” His voice wavered. He had said what he hoped Red wanted to hear. But despite everything Red had done so far, there was still part of him that really didn’t want to leave. 

“Can’t?”

“I don’t want to.” 

They stood there in silence for a few moments. Yellow didn’t dare say anything. He just stared down, eyes trained on Red’s gun. 

“Then I guess that puts us back at square one.” Red said coarsely. His tone alone was enough to make Yellow’s nerves flare up. “I tried to be nice to you the first time and apparently it didn’t work.”

He didn’t know what constituted as niceness from the human, but he was glad he didn’t blurt anything out. Yellow watched intently as Red moved the gun back up, flinching as he traced it’s muzzle along his jaw. The metal was cool once again and he shivered, shrinking back involuntarily as his eyes squeezed shut. 

Red allowed himself a slight smirk. Yellow had been incredibly responsive to fear in the past, and now was no different. All of his aggression had died off once he had a weapon out. However, something about doing this stirred his conscience, a slight inkling in the back of his mind that this was all wrong. But those were stirrings he had thought he had put to rest years ago, and he pushed them away now.

“Are you scared?”

Yellow opened his eyes, blinking blearily  _ How could I not be? _ “Yes.” His voice quivered.

“But you want to be good, don’t you?” 

It amazed Yellow how he could seem so amicable all while doing this. He nodded, and he did mean it. Even if just to keep Red from being upset with him he did want to please him. 

Red’s lip twitched up a bit more. “Good.” He dropped the hand holding the gun to his side and moved forward to press his free hand under Yellow’s shirt, digging his nails in slightly as he ran it up the impostor’s side. He didn’t waste time taking it off after that, but he never set the gun down, regardless of how Yellow was cooperating much more now. 

Once Yellow’s shirt was off, he moved forward more, immediately biting the crook of his neck. He wasn’t able to break the skin with his teeth, but sucked hard enough to draw blood. While sucking on that spot, he wrapped his arm around Yellow’s back, pressing the muzzle of the gun up against the back of his neck. 

Yellow trilled softly, tilting his head up automatically. He shivered as his head pressed against the barrel of the gun as he did so. He felt Red’s lips quirk up against his skin before he moved to a new spot. Reaching up, he lightly gripped the human’s shoulders as he continued to roam over his neck and shoulders. Red was biting him more than he usually did, but he supposed it was fitting. At least it offered something to concentrate on other than how every time he moved his head he was reminded that Red still had a gun to it. 

Red pulled away from his shoulder after making a few more marks with a quiet huff, “You’re mine. Don’t forget that.” He punctuated himself with another bite.

Yellow chirped, squeezing at his shoulders and nodding hastily. 

Red pulled back after a few more minutes to look him over, admiring his work of the new stark black bruises among the various shades of faded ones. He crossed his arms, placing the hand still holding his gun on top. “Do you trust me?”

“I do,” Yellow felt lightheaded, and his heart was still beating rapidly, but he barely hesitated before nodding, “Sir.” He added on at the end, feeling slightly disappointed when Red didn’t show any positive reaction to it like he usually did. 

“And you would do anything I told you to, correct?” 

“Yes, sir.” He still wasn’t hesitant, even as nervousness began to set back in.

“And can you tell me why?”

He paused this time, opening his mouth but wavering, unsure. “I can’t…”

“I do what’s best for you. And I think that deep down, you know I do. ” Red cut in, nearly gritting his teeth now. Lying through them, and he knew it. He just hoped that Yellow didn’t. 

_ Do you?  _ Yellow thought to himself, staying quiet. It really hadn’t felt like that lately, but maybe Red did actually have his best interest in mind. He hadn’t been hurt so far, not really, at least. 

Yellow’s silence appeased him for now. At least he wasn’t talking back anymore. “I’m going to give you one more chance, Okay?” He reached his free hand up to pet at Yellow’s face briefly.

He nodded, making a small sound as he leaned against Red’s hand for the few seconds it was there. His eyes drooped down to being half lidded and he stayed with his head cocked, just watching Red. 

Red bit the inside of his cheek, watching Yellow for a few seconds. “Get on your knees.” He kept his voice soft. 

Yellow blinked a few times. He had never told him to do this before, but he dropped down to his knees in front of him nonetheless. 

“Now can you open your mouth for me?” 

For once, Red actually sounded like he was asking him to instead of telling him to. 

Yellow complied, opening his mouth a bit, cocking his head in slight confusion but not asking questions. 

Red reached up, gripping Yellow’s chin loosely and pressing his thumb into his mouth. He rubbed it against his teeth for a second. They felt so dull now, it was hard to believe that they had actually cut him. He smirked slightly to himself. “Good.” 

The tiny bit of praise went straight to Yellow’s core and he hummed softly, eyes going back to being half open. 

Red ran his fingers over his teeth for a little while longer before he slowly started bringing his other hand up, still holding his gun. 

That completely snapped Yellow out of the slightly calm state he had been in a few seconds ago. He leaned away from Red and snapped his mouth closed as his now wide eyes darted up to look at him. If space had allowed it he would have pulled back more. Instead, he just squirmed. “I ca-”

“I thought you trusted me.” Red moved both of his hands away, but just barely. His voice had lowered again.

“I do!” Yellow said hurriedly. “It’s just-”

“You don’t think I can keep a steady hand?”

He whined. “No, I do, sir…” 

“Then c’mon. Open back up.” Yellow just kept staring up at him. “Don’t you want to make up for biting me?” That seemed to get to him. The impostor finally dropped his gaze and nodded. Red hummed. “Go on then.” He mumbled, nudging his chin up with the pistol. He didn’t miss the tremor in his jaw as Yellow finally opened his mouth slightly. “I better not feel your teeth on this.” Red added as he pressed the barrel against his lips. 

Yellow’s eyes flicked back up to the human. He let out a soft whine as the gun was pushed in further between his lips. He wrapped them over his teeth in what he hoped would be enough to prevent him from scratching it. 

Red kept pressing it in until he felt the cold metal ghost against the back of his throat and squeezed his eyes shut, somehow managing to keep his head still.  _ One wrong move and that’s it.  _ Briefly, he thought that he might be done when Red began to pull the gun back once the trigger guard had pressed against his bottom lip. But it wasn’t. He felt the bump of the sight hit his upper lip for a second and then it was gone as Red started pushing the pistol into his mouth once again. 

It hit the back of his throat harder that time. Yellow made a small noise, but stayed still. Luckily he didn’t have anything akin to a gag reflex. However, that didn’t make it any less jarring when he felt the metal bump into his throat repeatedly. He quickly stopped counting how many times it had been in and out, finding it much easier to just zone out. He was still scared, but oddly, he felt that fear begin to dissipate as Red continued. His vision blurred, and he had soon closed his eyes entirely. Eventually the feeling of the metal sliding back and forth against his tongue became morbidly calming. Enough so that it was startling when Red finally pulled the gun fully out of his mouth. 

He watched the glistening, translucent string of his saliva between his mouth and the gun snap as Red pulled it away and set it to the side. Looking up, he blinked at Red a few times, bleariness never fully leaving his eyes. He didn’t move, nor did he say anything. It felt like it would be too much effort. Red was smiling slightly now too, he didn’t want to do anything wrong and make him unhappy again. He felt almost calm now. If he had pleased Red then he felt he could be content as well.

Red was hard now, almost uncomfortably so. That discomfort was the only reason he had stopped. He would have been unnerved by just how pliant Yellow had become if it wasn’t so damn arousing. When he looked down Yellow met his eyes. They looked glazed.  _ He’s so fucking pretty like this _ . Red forced his eyes away, looking at the alien’s mouth as he moved his hand up to it again. Yellow opened it the second he touched it. He pressed his thumb in again, same as before. Meanwhile, he unzipped his pants with his free hand, taking himself out and giving his cock a few quick strokes. “You’re going to be good now, aren’t you? I  _ really  _ wouldn’t suggest biting me now.”

“I’ll be good,” Yellow slurred, the finger that was still holding his mouth open did nothing to help him.

He nodded and pressed Yellow’s lip down against his teeth one more before he took his hand away and moved forward, pressing his tip to the spot where his thumb had just been. 

Yellow barely reacted, his thoughts were blurry. The lack of air surely wasn’t helping with that, but he didn’t mind. He was still able to get some air in, enough to keep control of himself. He didn’t really know if he was supposed to be doing something, but since Red was no longer talking to him he assumed this was enough to keep him happy. 

And indeed it was, Red was satisfied with just being able to use the alien’s mouth. He could feel him swallow occasionally when he hit the back of his throat. He kept his thrusts slow for now as he moved a hand up to Yellow’s head, threading it into his hair. He was able to press deeper, and after there were no signs of resistance to that, he picked up his pace. 

Yellow let his jaw go completely slack once Red had taken ahold of his head. His eyes were closed, and he found himself falling into a dazed sort of calm again. 

After a few minutes, Red came with a shudder, pressing his hips as close to Yellow’s face as he could. He just stayed there for a moment, rocking his hips and panting slightly as he was gripped by the aftershocks. 

Yellow’s eyes fluttered when Red came. He swallowed around him instinctively, and whined softly when Red didn’t pull back, swallowing a few more times to deal with the prolonged feeling of having something in his throat.

“Fuck, quit that.” Red muttered once the impostor’s periodic swallowing became over stimulating. He pulled out, then moved back from Yellow entirely.

Yellow sucked in a breath. He panted for a few moments, but managed not to cough. The feeling of lightheadedness didn’t seem to fade. But aside from that, he wasn’t bothered very much. That was until he looked up to see that Red had turned away from him. His stomach dropped, a feeling of dread beginning to creep up on him. The feeling only got worse when the human turned back to him.

Red’s expression was steeled again. He couldn’t afford to let himself get emotional. Walking around Yellow, he sat on the edge of his bed. The impostor still hadn't moved. He glowered at him, despite how he knew he couldn’t see it. “You can get up.” 

He flinched when Red spoke, hesitating for a moment before rising to his feet. Turning to look at Red, he tried to meet the human’s eyes. Red did look back, but it somehow felt like he was ignoring him despite how he was staring right at him. Yellow swallowed thickly. He had thought he had almost looked fond of him earlier. Why wasn’t there even a trace of that left now? Yellow stood awkwardly for a moment, before finally sitting next to Red, not touching him. The human stayed quiet, but the silence did nothing to calm him. If anything, it made him feel worse. He didn’t know why he felt so empty now. 

“Did you mean it earlier?” Yellow forced himself to talk. He didn’t know why it felt so difficult just to get words out. In the short time he had had to think, one thing Red had said to him stuck in his mind. ‘ _ Sometimes I really wish I’d just killed you _ ’. Red had had the chance to kill him. He could have done it easily. But he hadn’t. Despite how small a detail it was, it still gave him some semblance of hope. He had to know. 

“Did I mean what?” 

The venomous tone of Red’s voice felt like it pierced straight into Yellow’s chest. He had seemed so nice just a little while ago. Then again, he never seemed to like to talk after he had cum. The last thing he wanted to do was make Red mad. He barely noticed the small whimper that slipped from his throat. He knew he needed to say something but he could hardly think now. He didn’t want to upset Red by saying something wrong, but he knew Red would just get more mad the longer it took him to respond. It was a simple question. He knew what he needed to say but his voice didn’t seem to work. The words felt stuck in his throat. It felt so hard. Why was it so hard? 

“When you said you wish you’d killed me.” He finally choked out. “Did you mean it?” His voice wavered. 

Red’s frown deepened as he glanced over to Yellow. He still looked zoned out. “It’d be a hell of a lot earlier than this. So yes.” Red snapped. 

Yellow frowned. He didn’t know what exactly Red meant by ‘this’ but he didn’t ask. A sinking feeling filled him. He didn’t know why he had even asked in the first place. Red didn’t seem like the type to lie about that. In a brief moment of desperation, before he had time to think, he leaned up against Red’s arm, nudging the back of it with his forehead, a wordless plea begging for some sort of comfort. Red was still, and for a moment he thought the human had just chosen not to react. 

Red hesitated, before he pulled his arm away, then shifted further away from Yellow. “What the hell are you doing.” It was really starting to piss him off that nothing he did or said seemed to deter the impostor. It was getting harder to ignore the feeling of almost guilt every time he had to push him away. 

He wanted to apologize, but his tongue felt like it wouldn’t work. All that came out was a quiet whine as he flopped onto his side and curled up. The taste of metal still lingered in his mouth despite everything else. He concentrated on that, trying to ignore the creeping feeling of failure that had begun to wash over him, only amplified by how Red had pushed him away. That was the most physical rejection he had ever received. He couldn’t pinpoint what exactly he had done wrong, but he knew he had to have done something to deserve to feel like this. He had to have disappointed Red in some way, and right now that felt like the worst possible thing he could do. 

Red turned to look at the impostor after a few minutes, who hadn’t moved since he had laid down. He usually recovered faster than this, and in terms of physical exertion he had been much easier on Yellow than normal. It never felt like long before he would flash him a quick smile and be on his way. There was no hint of that happening down. He turned to the side, snapping his fingers near Yellow’s face when he saw that he looked even more zoned out that he had before. “Is something wrong with you?” 

Yellow stared at the sheets, letting his vision blur in and out of focus. It was like the overwhelming feeling of failure was holding him there. But if he had done something wrong then he must deserve this. It felt almost like he was floating, which in itself was deeply uncomfortable, though he couldn’t discern why. He felt like he wasn’t really there. Maybe it would be better if he wasn’t. Red’s voice snapped him partway out of that thought, but not fully back. He didn’t feel like he could fully concentrate, not that it mattered. All that he could think about was that Red sounded irritated. That took the forefront of his thoughts, the actual words he was saying getting lost in the haze. 

Red shifted to better look at the alien when he remained unresponsive. “What the hell is going on with you?”

Yellow’s only implication that he had heard Red was that he curled up a bit more. He hadn’t picked up on the slight edge of concern that had begun to creep into Red’s voice. 

He watched Yellow’s glazed eyes fill with tears. It was like he was looking right through him. Red felt his blood run cold. Everything he had tried so hard to repress surged up at once and, for once, he barely tried to suppress it. For the first time in what felt like years, he felt pure guilt. Guilt that he had taught himself not to feel. It was like a slap in the face. Whatever this was, it was his fault.

“Fuck.” 


	7. Coming to Terms

White startled at the sound of a brash knock at his door, hand jerking and messing what he had been writing. Normally he would have been expecting Yellow to come by around this time. But that wasn’t how Yellow knocked. It was how Red knocked. Immediately, he was set on edge. If Red was here that meant he must know something. He rolled the chair away from his desk enough to turn to look at the door. Hesitantly, he responded. “Yes?” As the door slid open he let out an involuntary sigh, sitting up straighter when he saw that it was, in fact, Red. He didn’t even have time to address him before Red had shut the door behind him and started talking.

“There’s something wrong with him.”

White frowned, feeling his stomach drop as he noted that Red looked disheveled. He didn’t need to ask who the ‘him’ in question was. He signed, trying to keep himself somewhat composed. “What… happened?” he spoke hesitantly, trying to avoid sounding accusatory, despite how much he wanted to. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that whatever the issue was, it had been Red’s doing.

Red shifted, hesitating. He had already come here, he couldn’t just turn around and go back now. After a few seconds, he grit his teeth, nervously clenching his fists before explaining the situation to White, leaving out a few choice details to try and make himself seem more excusable. All the while, he could see that White was getting irritated. 

Despite his irritation, White stayed quiet, just letting Red talk. Though he was forcing himself to stay quiet, that didn’t stop his ever depending frown. Once Red was done he spoke up again, annoyance beginning to seep into his voice. Something like this was exactly what he had been afraid of. “And what, may I ask, would prompt you to do any of _that_ in the first place.”

Red huffed, crossing his arms. He hadn’t really wanted to argue, but if White was going to be like that he might as well defend himself. “I don’t want him fucking people behind my back.” 

It took every ounce of willpower White had left not to snap at him right there. “We never did anything like that. ” _And it’s not your decision_. He wanted to believe he saw something akin to regret flash across Red’s face as he briefly seemed surprised by hearing this. Not giving Red a chance to respond, he continued, still trying to keep his voice somewhat calm. “All I wanted to do was make sure he was okay. Did you ever, once, consider how he feels about any of this; You doing god knows what with him every day then having the gall to kick him out?” His fists were clenched now and he didn’t break eye contact with Red, who, for once, seemed at a loss for words. 

White continued, voice beginning to sound clipped. “But I think you did have at least an inkling that my intentions were pure, didn’t you? You chose to come to me for help with this, after all. You must know that I was better for him then you are.” He watched Red open his mouth to say something, but finally did snap at him before he could rebute. “What the fuck would you have done if you had shot him.”

To his surprise, Red’s anger actually seemed to dissipate some at that. 

Eyes widening, he just stared at White for a moment. White never swore. “It wasn’t loaded.” Red finally mumbled. “I took the cartridges out when I was getting it.” He had finally broken eye contact and was looking to the side. 

White signed quietly, forcing his irritation to the side as his concern for Yellow flared up again. He knew he didn’t need to fight about this. Everything had already been done, anyways. There was no changing that now. He needed to be the bigger person. He knew he had been lucky in managing to say something that actually seemed to affect Red. “Well, at least you’re willing to reach about it. That’s a step in the right direction.” 

Red looked up at him, confusion apparent on his face about White’s quick change in approach. “...I just want him to get back to normal.” His voice was quieter than it normally was. For the moment, he had partially abandoned his usual confident facade. 

However, that didn’t make White much more trusting. He didn’t know what Yellow being ‘normal’ meant according to Red's standards. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know either. He sighed. “Look, let me ask Lime if he knows anything. Since I assume Yellow won't be able to tell us how to help him in his current state.”

Red nodded, confirming that. 

“Just wait here, please.” Luckily Red didn’t protest. A small miracle. He and Lime had never liked each other. If the two of them started arguing now it could last an hour. 

\----- 

White inhaled sharply as he rapped lightly, but loud enough to be heard, on the door to Lime’s room. He shifted as he waited for a response, more from nervousness than impatience. 

Lime groaned quietly at the knocking, sitting up halfway in his bed and flicking on a light. Black stirred next to him.

“Do you want me to move-” Black spoke up quietly. 

“No, I don’t care, just stay.” He mumbled, loosely clawing at Black’s arm to keep it around him. He turned towards the door and spoke up again, louder this time. “What.” He paused before adding, “Door’s unlocked.” 

White sighed, relieved, when Lime finally responded. He stepped in enough that the door slid closed behind him, then blinked once at Lime before his eyes flicked over to Black. He would have to ask him about that later. _It’s fitting,_ He thought as he looked at them. They weren’t dissimilar, both tending to be quiet until you got them talking. He knew he needed to steer away from that now. 

Lime glared at White passively. His cheeks were darker than normal as he regarded the human, not moving from his spot curled up against Black. “Is there a reason you need me during the sleep cycle?” 

He nodded, “There is; I apologize for having to bother you now, but Red’s having an issue with Yellow and I thought you might know if there’s anything that could help.” 

Lime frowned as he spoke. “Oh.” He sighed, “Can’t say I’m surprised.” There was a bitter edge to his voice. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Well, normally Yellow leaves when Red is… done with him for the night, but he said that this time he wouldn’t. Or couldn't rather, he’s just unresponsive.”

Lime nodded. “He’s mentioned something about having to leave to me before... But was something different this time? That’s a drastic change to happen in just one night...” He trailed off when he looked at White, noticing that he looked somewhat distraught. 

White signed before relaying what Red had told him had happened to Lime, who he could see getting tense.

Lime was quiet for a few moments, sucking in a breath before he finally spoke up. “I doubt he would have been feeling normal after that to begin with, but on top of that being kicked out has probably been taking a toll on him for a while… It sounds like this just pushed him over the edge. The only instance where a heat partner would leave you is if you weren’t enough for them. Essentially, that rejection tells him that he’s failed in every way possible. Of course we don’t have an equivalent to making the other leave, but it sounds like it has the same effect instinctually. He’s just sort of shut down, as a way to try to cope with feeling like that, or because it’s too overwhelming, I can’t say.”

“Can you help him then? Is it something with hormones?” White trailed off as Lime shook his head. 

“We don’t produce pheremones after heat. Even if he was somehow still producing them I would already know. If I couldn’t smell it through the walls I would be able to pick them up on you since you were with Red just before coming here. There isn’t a trace of anything. It doesn't have to do with chemicals, it’s an emotional issue, something that, from knowing him, I can safely say he’s extremely susceptible to.”

“So dealing with this should be similar to taking care of a person who’s in a similar state?”

Lime paused. “Humans get like this?” 

“We can. Or something close, at least. ”

“Then I’d say that should work…”

White frowned slightly. Lime had wavered. “Is there anything else?”

Lime’s eyes darted back over to White. He met his eyes then looked down with a sigh. “Look, I don’t know for sure, but I think he might be bonding with Red emotionally. Getting attached to him.”

White cringed at the flicker of jealousy he felt at hearing that. He wasn’t surprised, but hearing someone else confirm his suspicions hit him harder than anticipated. 

He regarded White pityingly before he continued. “It’s different from the relationship he and I have. Outside of heat we’re the human equivalent of friends. And even that’s cutting it close. Any kind of emotional attachment is rare for us, reserved for the higher ups. Which we’re far from. And even for them it’s still frowned upon. But it wouldn’t surprise me if he is attached, just based on how he acts around Red. Plus, _that_ kind of activity outside of heat can augment it, and so can extended nonviolent bodily contact. I don’t know if he’s necessarily noticed, it might all be subconscious at this point, but even if it is just his subconscious that thinks he’s forming an emotional bond with Red, that would still make any form of rejection feel much worse than it would without.”

“That’s… helpful to know.” 

“Take care of him.” There was a hint of a threat in Lime’s voice that died off as he spoke up again. “And come get me if Red isn’t willing to help.”

White nodded before turning to leave. Lime flicked off the light and rolled over to face Black, worrying about his fellow impostor. He trusted White well enough, but not Red. Emotional intelligence was far from his strong suit. 

\-----

Once he was back to his room, White regarded Red as the door closed behind him. The other was now sitting at his desk. 

Red swiveled the chair over to where he could see White, looking at him expectantly. 

“Lime said this is something that happens-”

“So he’ll get over himself?”

His voice was far too nonchalant for White’s liking. He bristled, visibly tensing up as he shot a death glare at Red. “Cut the shit.”

“You have no right-” Red blurted.

“I have plenty of right. You came to _me_ . So just shut up. For _once_ just be quiet and stop acting like a complete sociopath.” White paused. Red crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair, looking at him but not saying anything. “What are you going to do when you finally cross the wrong line and he tries to attack you?”

Red rolled his eyes. “He won’t.”

White sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose briefly. “I’m not blind. He already hurt you, didn’t he?” 

Red hesitated. “Once. It’s not hard to keep him compliant.” Red pursed his lips, shifting his crossed arms to hide the bandage, not that it mattered much now.

“And what the hell happens when he finally does snap and he tries to do that while you _are_ really armed? It’d be reflexual. You’d kill him. And then what?”

Red didn’t say anything for a moment, then repeated, gritting his teeth. “He won’t.” 

“He harned you for, what I’m assuming, was the first time tonight. If you didn’t expect that, how can you be so sure he won’t resist another time. If you keep pushing eventually he’s going to break. He’ll either break and attack you, or he’ll break like how you’ve said you’re acting now. I assume you don’t want him permanently like he is now, judging by how you’re here. But if you do then you’re fucking sick.”

Red met his eyes, glaring. The usual malice he held was barely present. “I don’t.”

“Well you sure as hell aren’t acting like it. Lime said that the _only_ time your partner leaves you in their culture is if they weren’t good enough. Every time you tell him to leave you’re telling him he’s failed you.”

“I didn’t know-”

“Didn’t know? Or didn’t care. Because I’m pretty sure telling someone to leave after fucking them means roughly the same thing by our standards.”

“Didn’t know.” Red growled. “And it’s not the same, it’s plenty normal for people.”

White huffed. “Maybe it’s normal if you’re paying someone for it. But is that all he is to you? A whore?”

Red looked at White, meeting his eyes and just staring at him for a few seconds before looking back down, squeezing his still crossed arms tighter. “No.”

“Then you need to get it together and figure out how to deal with this before you really do ruin things. If you haven’t already.”

Red winced slightly, barely noticeable but of course White had to notice it. 

White hesitated, assessing his options before he looked back to Red. “No one’s going to take him from you. You’re not going to lose him-”

“You know damn well that isn’t true. What if-”

White cut him off, glad to have struck a nerve with that. “Red, _please_ . We still have months before we even have to doc again, there’s time to figure things out. The only people who know about this are on this ship. Right now, _you’re_ the biggest risk for him. The only person who could marr your chances with him right now is _you._ ” He paused, giving Red a brief moment to rebuke that. He didn’t. “And I know you don’t want that.” His voice softened some, but not much. “You care about him. Some part of you does, at least. You could have just picked him up and put him in his own room if you didn’t care. But you didn’t. It affected you enough that you came here, to me, voluntarily. You, of all people, asked for help. That in itself is enough is proof that you care, so stop telling me, and stop telling yourself, that you don’t.”

Red was silent for a few moments. He felt cornered, despite how White had calmed back down. He didn’t like being read like that, but he had already done it so why keep lying? “It’s just-” He huffed, “Not something I’m used to… I haven’t done anything like this in years. Shit, I never have. Not really. You learn not to. Everyone’s just someone else who might die tomorrow.” 

“You’ve threatened him with death multiple times now, just you, no one else has gotten as close to hurting him as you have. Plus, he’s an alien. I doubt he has any expectations of what a human relationship should be like. This was all new for him too, how often do you think you’ve forced him out of his comfort zone? You have to man up eventually.” White hesitated after that. He knew the last bit of what he said was risky, but he was willing to take the gamble. Maybe it would be the last little push Red needed. 

And it was. Red glared at him again, but it was short lived. He sat up straighter and uncrossed his arms, idly cracking his knuckles before he stood. “I guess you’re right. He’s probably been alone long enough by now.” He internally cringed, trying to keep concern out of his voice. For the most part, he had.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Despite how he seemed to be cooperating better now, saying that White was uncomfortable with leaving Red alone with Yellow now would be an understatement. But he knew if he followed Red without asking he risked irritating him. 

“Can you help with him?”

“If you’re willing to be emotionally vulnerable with me in the room, then yes. ”

Red hesitated, before finally sighing. “If it’ll help him.”

For the first time in years he heard real weakness in Red’s voice. 

\-----

Meanwhile, Yellow hadn’t moved. The edges of his consciousness had begun to blur further. After Red had left, he had stopped trying to keep himself from letting that get worse. It didn’t matter anymore.

He shifted slightly. It felt like he was moving slowly, just that slight motion made his vision blur more intensely at the edges. His limbs felt heavy as he grabbed a sheet, pulling it up and pressing his face into it. It smelled like Red. He wanted, desperately, to be comforted by that, and yet, he couldn’t. That only served as a reminder that Red wasn’t here. He had left. _Can he really not stand just me being here?_ Yellow felt a fresh wave of shame wash over him, but couldn’t place exactly what he’d done wrong to deserve it. Still, he had already made up his mind that he did. 

He sniffled quietly, curling in on himself further, still holding onto the sheet tightly as if it were a lifeline. 

He didn’t know how long he laid there. His body hurt, of course his shoulders hurt but it wasn’t just that. There was a dull, permeating pain on top of it that seemed to consume his whole being. 

At some point he had tuned back in with himself physically enough to realize he was crying. He wasn’t crying hard, it was just the occasional feeling of wetness running down his face. He tried to stop, but quickly realized it was useless. He couldn’t control it. Even if he squeezed his eyes closed they still felt wet. That only made him feel worse, more disgusted with himself. Of course Red wouldn’t want him. It made sense that he would leave. He was a failure. An inept, unworthy, failure. 

His thoughts continued along that route as he sunk back into his mind, forgetting the tears that would still occasionally trail slowly down his cheeks. He wanted to fall asleep, but couldn’t manage to. However, he didn’t feel fully awake either. Somewhere in between the two. Just drifting. Eventually it became harder to think. Harder to think and equally hard to feel. His mind knew he was still gripping the sheet, but he might as well have been clenching his fists in the air. It was like he was out of tune with his own body. Discomfort about this began seeping over him, but he was helpless to stop it by this point. He would just have to ride it out alone. And he supposed that he must deserve that. 

Occasionally his chest would heave, but aside from that he was still. His senses had completely dulled by the time the humans returned, and he didn’t notice at all when the door opened. 

\-----

White immediately grit his teeth when he and Red got back to his room. If he hadn’t wanted to get to Yellow as soon as possible he might have left again to chide Red more elsewhere. Yellow didn't move, even at the sound of the door sliding closed. He wasn’t showing any signs he had even noticed them come in. White looked over to Red. Seeing that he looked genuinely regretful was the only reliving thing about the situation. White shot him a quick glare. A silent message of _don’t screw this up._

Red didn’t move, watching as White went over to Yellow. He had said he would help, not take things over entirely. He was willing to let him do that, and forced away the feeling of possessiveness that rose up in him. 

White sat on the bed next to Yellow before hesitantly reaching over to touch his shoulder. He hadn’t flinched, something he hoped was a good sign. “Hey.” His voice was quiet. Yellow didn’t respond, but he hadn’t expected him to. At least he was looking at him instead of continuing to stare at the wall. He smiled slightly, sadly, but he wanted to try to offer him some kind of reassurance. 

Yellow just stared at him. Everything still felt so blurry. When had White gotten here? And how? He still hadn’t noticed Red, who was barely within his line of sight. He kept staring at White. He could feel tears in his eyes and blinked. He flinched at the coldness that trailed down his cheek. He wanted to move over to him. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t move, couldn’t say anything. Why was White even here? He was pathetic, and his inability to get his own limbs to cooperate was only a solidification of that in his mind. He clenched his fists, letting out a keen of a whine that tapered off into slight distortion. 

That finally broke White. He moved forward to gently grab Yellow so he could pull him up against his side. He hadn’t wanted to touch the impostor without him initiating it, but he had seemed like he wanted him to. The last thing he wanted was to accidentally make Yellow think he was brushing him off too. He kept his grip loose until he felt Yellow press himself harder against him. He took that as a signal that this was appreciated and wrapped his arms around him tighter. “You’re okay…” He mumbled quietly as he rubbed his back, pulling the alien onto his lap. He continued mumbling things that he hoped were at least somewhat reassuring. After a few minutes he felt Yellow let out a dry sob against him. He turned his attention away from the alien and glared at Red. When he didn’t move he actually addressed him. He didn’t actually speak, just mouthed “Get over here.” He didn’t want Yellow to pick up on his tone and think he had done something wrong. 

Red grit his teeth. He wasn’t exactly angry, it was more of a feeling of frustration. He wanted to blame that on the situation, but deep down he knew he was really more irritated with himself than at anything else. He felt stupid. It pissed him off that White had to pick him apart like that for him to come to terms with this, but in the end he couldn’t really be mad at him. This whole time all he had wanted to do was help. Hesitantly, he pushed himself to walk forward. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous. Yellow was harmless. He knew it wasn’t fear of being harmed that was making him nervous, however. It was fear of vulnerability. He squeezed his fists closed for a second, trying to detense himself some, before sitting on the bed beside White, looking at Yellow who was still clinging to him. 

When the bed moved Yellow pulled back. His thoughts were still bleary, but he had come back enough to have noticed that. He turned, feeling White’s grip loosen to allow him to do so. He froze again, making a soft chirping sound involuntarily when he saw that it was Red.

White held his breath, watching Red. The other wasn’t looking at him, he was looking at Yellow, who was staring right back at him.

Yellow couldn’t move. This was too unrealistic. But White felt real… Still, _this_ didn’t feel real; not Red being here. He had thought Red didn’t really want him. So why would he come back? Hadn’t he messed something up? He refocused his vision back on Red, train of thought faltering when he realized Red was moving a hand towards him. It pressed against his face, gently. All he could think about was how he had done the same thing earlier, but despite himself, Yellow leaned forward against it. 

Red just stared at him, watching the impostor close his eyes after his hand had been there for a few moments. Slowly, he inched himself forward until he was leaning against the wall next to White. He moved his hand down then, watching Yellow’s eyes open at the loss of contact. He looked so confused, and so sad on top of it. Red swallowed as he continued to watch him.

Yellow moved closer to Red slowly, though it felt slower to him than it actually was, moving off of White’s lap for the most part and onto his. He kept one hand on White’s leg, grabbing at Red’s shoulder with the other. He hesitated, feeling all of his nervousness come rushing back when Red didn’t do anything for a moment. But once Red did move to place a hand on his back he melted against him. 

Both Red and White sighed. Red began to rub his back lightly, trying to get him to calm down more. White idly laced their fingers together. 

Meanwhile, Yellow was confused. It was nice that Red was doing this, but it felt off. It was hard to imagine Red caring like White seemed to, but it was equally hard, if not harder, to imagine White acting like Red. So maybe there was a chance that Red really did care. He sniffed. He should be happy, grateful even. But instead he felt like he was going to start crying again. Why did this have to be so confusing? He had so many questions, but now that his thoughts had begun blurring again he knew there wasn’t a chance of him getting anything out.

White felt Yellow’s hand tense against his own. He looked at Red, meeting his eyes. Another silent message, this time urging him to say something.

Red pursed his lips before letting out a slight sigh. He had got the message. Hesitantly, he began mumbling quietly, trying to reassure Yellow like White had been doing previously. 

Yellow perked up slightly when Red started talking. He couldn’t concentrate on what exactly he was saying, just that he was talking to him. Red’s voice was low, but not in the same way it had been earlier. Now it sounded soft. Was that good? He wanted it to be good. Either way, he appreciated having something to occupy his mind rather than his own thoughts. He squeezed Red’s shoulder lightly, in what he hoped would come off as appreciation. 

Red kept talking, occasionally glancing over to gauge White’s reaction as a sign of if he was doing this right or not. It wasn’t exactly unpleasant once he got past the unfamiliar aspect of having to comfort someone. Tedious, sure, but he didn’t really mind that.

Eventually Yellow began to feel more present, and what Red was saying sounded more like words rather than a blurry string of sounds. Maybe if he tried to concentrate more...

“I’m sorry,”

Yellow jerked back when he heard that, pulling his face fully away from Red’s shoulder to look at him. He couldn’t have heard that correctly.

_Of everything he could have heard it had to be that._ Red kept his mouth straight, not daring to frown at Yellow and risk ruining everything. He could feel White watching him expectantly. Slowly, he moved his hand up to Yellow’s face, cupping the back of his head in his hand and petting at his jaw lightly with his thumb, before finally managing to repeat himself. “I’m sorry.”

Yellow cocked his head, blinking at Red who slowly lowered his hand. He opened his mouth, making a clicking sound before he snapped his mouth shut. The tiny bit of confidence he had faded. English. He had to talk in English. He tried to concentrate on getting himself to think outside of his native language. After a moment, he felt could at least think in English somewhat fluently. He opened his mouth again, trying to get something out, but after a second, he hesitated. He snapped his mouth closed again. He didn’t know why it felt so hard. He knew what he wanted to say. It wasn’t even difficult. He didn’t deserve this if he couldn’t even do something as small as this. 

White watched Yellow’s expression fade from confusion to something akin to anger. “Hey,” He spoke up quickly, touching Yellow’s shoulder with his free hand and snapping him back to reality. “If you can’t talk right now you don’t have to. You haven’t done anything wrong.” 

“You’re fine.” Red sighed when the alien’s gaze shifted to him. 

That seemed to calm Yellow back down. He leaned forward tiredly, still slightly confused, as he rested his chin between Red’s and White’s shoulders, slumping forward onto both of them. He could worry about asking why later. Red had started rubbing his back again, and after a few minutes he yawned.

“I’m laying down.” Red mumbled, to both Yellow and White. He shifted slowly, partially dragging Yellow along with him in an effort to keep him from thinking he was abandoning him. _Again._ Red bit his lip as he laid down on his back. 

White let go of Yellow’s hand, despite how it hurt him to do so.

Yellow mirrored Red as he laid down next to him, blinking at White expectantly, before yawning.

White followed suit after that, smiling slightly to himself about how Yellow still seemed to want him here even though he now had Red.

The positioning was fairly awkward on a bed meant for a single person. 

Soon, Yellow moved again, looking at White for a moment, longingly, before he rolled over onto his other side to face Red, laying partway on his chest.

Once Yellow had readjusted himself, White moved onto his side as well, pressing up against the alien and wrapping an arm around his hip. 

Yellow finally felt himself smile as he felt Red, who was still on his back, wrap an arm around his shoulders. They were both warm. It felt safe. The irrational feeling of guilt hadn’t fully subsided, but it wasn’t all he had to focus on now. He nuzzled Red’s neck one more time with a low trill before he grew quiet, falling asleep soon after. 

“He’s lucky the spikes on these things aren’t sharp.” Red murmured once he was sure Yellow was asleep, shifting himself upwards just slightly to keep the impostor’s frill from poking his neck. 

White snorted quietly, before shushing him. “Let him sleep. And don’t even think about getting up.” 

Yawning, Red rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “I won’t.”

They both fell quiet after that, and to White’s surprise, Red fell asleep before him. 

\-----

Yellow blinked slowly. He wasn’t used to waking up without an alarm. He froze, that thought reminding him of where he was. He could still feel Red and White next to him. And they both felt real, and _he_ felt real. He felt Red shift and looked up at the human’s face, seeing that his eyes were open. 

Red looked away from him and up at the ceiling, yawning before he shifted to sit up a bit. “If you’re finally awake can I get up?” 

Yellow nodded sheepishly, sitting up halfway so he wasn’t holding Red down anymore. He was still drowsy, too drowsy to think properly. “Why?” He blurted out. 

Red looked at him again as he sat up fully, leaning against the headboard. “ ‘Why’ what?”

Yellow swallowed. He could only hope that Red wouldn’t switch to being cold again. “Last night when you said you were sorry… Why?” 

White tensed as he saw a flicker of anger run across Red’s face. 

But his anger only lasted a second. Yellow seemed too sincere to be messing with him. He almost would have preferred that to the impostor being genuinely unsure of what he did wrong. Red sighed heavily, shifting again uncomfortably. “Because I am sorry.” He grit out before swallowing. “I treated you like less than you are because it was easier. Because I was scared.” Red huffed quietly, blinking at the wall. “I like having you here and I don’t want to be the reason I lose you.” He blurted out quickly. Finally, he drug his eyes back over to look at the impostor. He didn’t know why he had doubted Yellow’s forgiveness. He was grinning at him. _I don’t deserve him._ He ignored the thought as he found himself smiling back, really smiling, without a trace of smugness. Just relief.

Yellow’s momentary contentment didn’t last long, however, and his smile soon faded as he turned away from Red to look at White, who had also sat up. “But what about White…”

White smiled sadly as Yellow turned his attention to him. He didn’t know what Red was planning after this but he had stepped up better than he had expected. It hurt, but he didn’t have any control over Yellow. If he wanted Red he knew he had to let him go. He couldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t, not if Red was actually willing to treat him properly. 

Red glanced over to White. He knew he avoiding eye contact with him. “I’m sure we can work something out.”


	8. Mutualism

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this took way longer than I intended to get out, a lot of stuff came up, but I hope it's a satisfying ending!
> 
> Also I made art for this! It's just some basic refs but they're on my twitter, as will anything else I make for this. There's also a curiouscat link in my bio on there if you want to ask anything  
> Character refs: [here](https://twitter.com/Strix_Acadicus/status/1335873333850759168?s=20)  
> Alien dicks: [here](https://twitter.com/Strix_Acadicus/status/1335874821717102594?s=20)

  
  


Red had spent the majority of that day trying to figure out what exactly he wanted to do about the whole situation. White seemed ready to stand down, but Yellow was obviously attached to him. If he cut him off from White altogether he might hold a grudge against him for it. Plus, the impostor had seemed happier today than he had been in all of the past week. He seemed less like he was simply going through the motions than he had before. He had also been clingier, and while Red wanted to be irritated by it he found that he surprisingly wasn’t. It was... cute, and having his attention be voluntary rather than forced felt unexpectedly nice. 

But despite this, a part of him still wanted to get his guard back up. Letting White in would be another liability; it could be dangerous. But he had been vulnerable around him last night and nothing bad had happened. In fact, the only results he had seen so far were good ones. Yellow had been equally as interested in him as White when they had both been there. Maybe even more interested in him than in White. They were too different, White wouldn’t replace him. He couldn’t. With this in mind, he set off to go find him. Judging by his body language, he could tell that Yellow was happy when they veered in the direction of the wing White was usually in. Before this, if anyone had said he would ever make this kind of agreement with White he would have thought they were insane. But now here he was, though what he was about to go through with still felt somewhat insane. 

Before getting to the other man Red hesitated, pulling Yellow to the side. “You can go for now. I’ll meet back with you at my room at the usual time.” Yellow just watched him for a moment. Red didn’t know if he was making things up to fill the void of uncertainty, but he felt like there was a certain aura of smugness around him. Like he somehow knew what he planned to do. He didn’t have much time to worry about it, however. Yellow quickly nodded and left him. Ignoring the slight uneasiness he felt, Red turned away from Yellow and went to find White. 

\-----

It didn’t take him long, and he shut the room’s door behind him when he saw White was alone, making him flinch. Red sighed, yanking his helmet off. There had been enough time to decide what he wanted to say already. Now he just had to actually get it out. “White. I need to speak with you.” He barely waited for the other to turn to look at him before continuing. Based on his expression, it was obvious his being here alone made him nervous. “Look. I… think I’m fine with you. I don’t know what the fuck any of  _ this  _ even is but I’m willing to try letting you be a part of it.” He paused, swallowing thickly. “You’re good for him.” He sighed, looking over at the other man. His expression was indistinct, but he looked somewhere between surprise and elation. Red huffed, looking away again. “I would call you soft, but I don’t really feel the need to insult you anymore.”

White didn’t say anything for a moment. He was relieved, but still felt like he needed to be careful of his phrasing around Red. But that was something he could do. He cleared his throat. “I suppose I should thank you then,” He hesitated, watching Red. That seemed to have been the right thing to say. He relaxed slightly. “For being willing to give it a chance and all… I have to give you credit for stepping up.” He was laying it on thick.  _ Too thick.  _ He didn’t hint anything of that thought to Red. At least he reacted positively. 

Red hesitated before breaking the silence again. “Then if we’re going to do this… I don’t want you to be alone with him… Not yet.” He was still worried about somehow losing Yellow. He needed to be positive White didn’t have a chance of replacing him. 

White sighed softly, but nodded. “I’m fine with that. But, if I abide by your rules you also have to abide by mine.”

Red narrowed his eyes, frowning just slightly. 

“Just give him… three more days without trying anything. I want to be able to make sure he’s fully okay first.”

Red groaned, glaring halfheartedly at White. After close to a month of consistent action, three nights without seemed like a lot.

“Please.” White added, quietly.

“Fine, sure. But I get to do whatever I want if he’s fine after that long.”

“Within reason.” White snapped. “I don’t want to come back and see him that far gone again, there are preventative measures you can take to help-”

“If you think something I do is too far, you can just say it. I’ll even be easier on him the next few times, just to appease you. But you better be just as easy.”

White paused, eyes widening. “You’re going to-”

“I’m going to let you fuck him, yes.”

“You don't have to be so… crass.” White huffed. Despite himself, he could feel that his face had gotten warmer. 

Red rolled his eyes. “Just don’t come onto me. I’m willing to share him with you because he likes you, not because I like you.” Red looked over to him, locking him in his gaze. “And don’t sneak around behind my back and do anything without me knowing.” He looked away, “Abide by that and you can have him too.” 

“He’s not a thing to be had. That’s up to him, not me. I’ll only… join in if he wants me to.” 

Red snorted. “I think we both know he would.”

White shot him a glare, weakened by the blush still present on his face.

\-----

When the two humans had come back together Yellow had been thrilled. They had debriefed everything with him and he had obviously agreed. He thought White was being overly cautious, but didn’t bring that up. Waiting didn’t bother him, and Red seemed fine with it. He trusted White’s judgment, and even if it was longer than was probably necessary, it just meant that he cared. Luckily for him, it hadn’t felt like very long. 

Yellow was currently sitting on Red’s bed, feet pulled up underneath himself. He regarded the two humans in front of him eagerly. He had reached the end of that week and felt fine, better than he had in a while. He shifted, cheeks already slightly darkened. “I feel normal… Does that mean you’re going to-”

White cut in, “We’re not ‘going to’ do anything to you. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, anything at all really. You’ll be safe regardless. It’s up to you if you want to do anything sexual with either of us or not.” Red shifted next to him, and for a moment he was worried the other was going to say something. But luckily, he stayed quiet. 

Yellow whined, cheeks darkening slightly. “I  _ do _ . Just because it's not something we don’t usually do doesn't mean it’ll hurt me… Not normally anyway. It’s hard to explain, but I do want to.” 

“What do you want to do then?” Red asked, smirking slightly. It was obvious he was growing impatient, especially now, but he stayed where he was for the time being. 

“It’s your choice.” White added. 

Looking down, away from either of their faces, Yellow shifted, chewing at his lip and trying to figure out how to phrase things. He had a pavlovian association with Red leaving only a small light on, and that alone was enough to make him restless. Not to mention what he had to  _ ask  _ for. It was so taboo. Eventually he spoke up, stumbling over his words. “Can you both… You know-” He whined, face darkening further. “At the same time?” he flicked his eyes back up, looking at Red for a second. He looked rapturous. Yellow shivered.

White hesitated, his own face darkening. “I’m sure that’s possible, yes. But are you sure you’ll be capable of… taking us both at the same time?”

Yellow nodded, turning his gaze to White and looking at him near pleadingly. “I’m sure. It shouldn’t be hard.”

Red snorted, before glancing over to White. “He seems pretty avid about it.” 

White pursed his lips, “ Alright, if that’s what you want I trust your judgement.” He was still nervous about the whole ordeal, but forcing him to abstain was still controlling him, and that was the last thing he wanted to do. “Just say something if anything feels bad, physically or otherwise, and we’ll stop.” He locked eyes with Red for a moment after, who in turn, rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah.” Red affirmed as he went over to Yellow, reveling at how that made him sit up straighter. 

Yellow chirped quietly, sitting up on his heels more and latching onto Red as soon as he was close enough. Red chuckled quietly at that and he shivered, moving to get on the human’s lap once he had sat down. He swallowed thickly, immediately tilting his head back as Red went to suck at his neck. Grabbing his shoulders, he shifted to where he was sitting with one leg on either side of Red. He chittered softly as Red moved down to bite and suck on his shoulders, marking the, now almost faded, area. Cautiously, he rutted his hips down once. Red’s only reaction was to press up against him, which he took as a good sign, eventually working up the courage to repeat the action. Eventually he pulled his head back enough to look at the man again. “What do you want me to do?” He asked hesitantly, watching Red’s face carefully. To his surprise, he just shrugged. 

“What you've been doing is fine.”

He paused, but soon nodded, pressing back lightly on Red’s shoulder. “Is this-” He mumbled, swallowing as the other yielded under his touch. “Okay.” Yellow’s blush worsened. Red laid down, running his hands down his back to rest on the backs of his thighs as he did so. Yellow followed him, laying on his chest but keeping his legs where they were by the human’s sides. He looked down coyly for the most part as he continued, but occasionally would glance up to Red. He was used to Red facing him, but never like this before. It felt like Red was actually looking at him now rather than just looking through him. It made him somewhat nervous. More about disappointing one of the humans than having something happen to him. He looked over to the side, shuddering as he realized just how slick he had already gotten from that attention alone. 

“Hey,” Red mumbled, propping himself up on an elbow. 

Yellow’s eyes shot back up to him and he chirped as he stilled, cocking his head that he didn’t lift off Red’s chest.

“You’re fine,” He added, noting Yellow’s slightly worried expression. “But can you sit up?” 

He just blinked at Red for a moment. That was a request. It felt so odd hearing that from Red, no form of underlying threat present. He almost wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. He ignored that thought. After regaining his bearings, he hastily nodded and sat up, leaning back to sit fully on Red’s hips, blushing a bit harder when he realized how hard the human had already gotten. That meant he must be doing good. 

When Yellow’s full weight settled back against his half hard cock Red groaned quietly, grinding up against him. He hummed lowly to himself, sliding a hand up the impostor’s thigh as he continued to slowly rub against his hips. “Good.” He spoke quietly, but felt Yellow’s muscles tense under his hand, so he had obviously heard. He took that as a positive reaction. Yellow didn’t move, just stayed put with his now balled fists on the lower part of Red’s chest. He glanced up at the impostor, almost regretting it. His pupils were blown, and the way his face glowed in the dim light had a fluorescent haziness to it. Red swallowed thickly when Yellow met his eyes, quickly shifting his gaze to his shoulders instead. He cleared his throat. “You can go back to what you were doing.”

Yellow nodded eagerly, grabbing at Red’s undershirt lightly to help himself balance as he went back to grinding his hips down against him. He continued on with that, mind wandering. It almost felt like he was dizzy, but in a good way. It felt nice. He lost that train of thought as Red rutted his hips up against him roughly, snapping his attention back to him fully. _Right._ He should probably… Move onward. “Do you want me to-” 

“I don’t care, just do something.” Red hastily responded, groaning as Yellow slid back to sit on his thighs. He watched as Yellow pulled away after that, hastily getting his own pants off. He didn’t even bother to take them off all the way, just down one leg before fully resettling himself on Red. Just enough to have access, almost like he was desperate. The notion that the alien was desperate for him in any way was an absolute power trip and Red squeezed at Yellow’s thigh as he turned to undo his pants now, spurring him on. He shuddered as his erection popped out into the cool air. 

Yellow licked his lips, glancing down before looking at Red’s face. He swallowed, looking down at his chest again. In a quick motion, he surged up, hesitating with his hips lifted just Red’s. He whined, thighs shaking slightly both from embarrassment and strain from holding himself up continuously. “Do you want me to-” 

“Please.” Red grit out, face flushing in embarrassment. But at least that got Yellow to actually sit down, making some weird noise in the process. Red dug his fingers into his hips, huffing out a groan. The new angle made all the difference. It felt so slimy and weird and  _ hot _ . He held Yellow there for a few moments once he had sat down on him completely. A bit reluctantly, he glanced up, watching the impostors face. His eyelids fluttered, and Red forced himself to stay still for the few seconds before Yellow moved first. Red groaned as the other started shifting and rocking against him, seeming to slowly get more confident. He reached down to grab at Yellow’s cock loosely, who trilled as the tentacle intertwined with his fingers. 

White watched them quietly. Maybe he would have felt awkward if he hadn’t been taking his current role so analytically. He was too focused on trying to make sure that Yellow was okay to be concerned about involving himself at the moment. He could see Red pressing his hips up more now, slowly getting less passive. He figured it wouldn’t be long until he grew bored of just this, so he decided to stay at the sidelines. Unsure of how long he would stay out of things, he was content to just continue to watch them. Yellow was talking less than he did normally, but aside from that seemed fine, so he didn’t feel the need to step in. That was, until, the impostor looked over to him. He had thought he might have been too distracted to even remember he was still here. 

Yellow whined shrilly as he looked at White in an attempt to call him over. Even if he was much easier to please than Red, he still wanted to make him happy too. 

White just watched him for a few more seconds before moving over to the bed with a slight smile. Red seemed too preoccupied to care, so hopefully he wouldn’t be too jealous. “Are you doing alright?” He asked quietly, running a hand up Yellow’s back. 

He nodded, leaning up to press his face against the human’s neck once he had gotten close enough. After a few moments he pulled back, meeting his eyes sheepishly. “I want you, too.” 

White’s face darkened. It was obvious what he meant, but he still hesitated. “Are you s-”

“I’m positive,” He snapped, nearly hissing. “Please-”

“Alright.” White responded reassuringly as he hastily moved to kneel on the bed behind Yellow.

The alien leaned back against his hands like he was desperate for his touch, so he pressed closer. Not bothering to take the time to properly remove his clothes, White undid his pants to take himself out. He hadn’t noticed just how hard he had already gotten watching them. He hesitated again, stroking himself idly, resting his hand on Yellow’s hip. “You’re sure you want me to-” 

“Yes.” Yellow hissed, pressing his hips back towards White, arching his back. He looked over his shoulder, briefly meeting his eyes in an effort to get him to actually  _ do something. _

White bit at his lip, guiding himself as he started pressing into the alien. When he showed no signs of resistance or struggle from the tip, he stopped holding himself back and pressed forward, making sure he kept himself slow, monitoring him for any signs that something hurt. At least paying attention to that made him pay less attention to how Red was also here. Something that was difficult to ignore when their dicks were touching. It was weird, but easier to look past than he had expected it to be. 

Yellow’s chest heaved as he grew impatient. He rocked his hips back, making White bottom out. It was somewhat difficult to do while keeping Red still inside him, but he managed, grabbing White’s wrist and pulling it closer to him to keep him from pulling out at all. He clenched down on them both after that, growing still for a few moments and panting softly to himself. They were both… He shivered, smiling to himself in satisfaction. 

White moaned against his shoulder, snaking an arm around Yellow’s torso. He had never really paid much attention to the temperature difference between them, but now it felt impossible to ignore. It was so foreign. He felt his head drag up against the base of Red’s cock, a stark, hot contrast to the inside of the impostor that felt just slightly warm. He carefully bucked his hip up, groaning as Yellow was able to push back against him more once he had gotten closer. It felt like he had somehow managed to take in more of him than before. Yellow seemed to adjust rather quickly and soon went back to moving against them, getting more vocal.

Yellow whined, focusing on the feeling of White behind him, of his hot hands roaming over his sides, holding onto him somehow both gently and desperately. Despite the thrum over his senses, if he focused he could make out the quiet praises the man continued to mumble against his skin. He shivered. 

That meant he was good. Good at this. It was so  _ satisfying.  _ Just to feel like he could do something well. That satisfaction alone was better than anything either of them could do physically, and he didn’t want anything more than it. 

His tongue was out, he hadn’t bothered trying to bite it. It lay on his chin as he panted, the thick, flat appendage curling slightly at it’s tapered end. Vaguely, he realized he was drooling. He didn’t bother worrying about it, just shivered as he felt a bead of saliva leave a cool trail down his chest. 

He wondered if it would reach all the way down and shuddered. Everything was already so wet. His cock increased its squirming momentarily, squeezing at Red’s fingers as they lazily intertwined with it. Red squeezed it back and he whined, grinding down harder. His eyes flicked down and focused on Red’s face. The man in question was already looking right at him. He blinked rapidly, feeling himself blush harder. The thought that Red had been staring at the whole time was near mortifying… but at the same time it made him feel deeply prideful. Something about the attention, and positive attention at that thrilled him. 

He didn’t know how Red could look so calm. Calm compared to him at least. He still had a heavy blush, but aside from that he barely seemed affected. Yellow was unbothered by that, his attentiveness alone would have been enough, but Red was smiling at him, unwaveringly, on top of that. His eyes were half lidded as he continued to gaze up at him, almost fondly. 

With wide eyes, Yellow blinked down at him a few times, before he opened his mouth more, letting out two sharp clicking sounds as he kept staring down at Red.  _ Please _ . He didn’t expect the human to understand, even if he could get his vocal cords to cooperate and properly speak english, he didn’t know what exactly he wanted. 

Red chewed on his lip, still smiling slightly as he watched Yellow.  _ He really is ethereal. _ The impostor was looking at him so pleadingly, and he was so close now... He swallowed, biting the metaphorical bullet and finally putting his positive thoughts into words. “You’re so good.” His voice was quiet, but audible. He watched Yellow’s eyes flutter as his fists clenched and he squeezed around him. “Fuck-” Red hissed, swallowing as he grabbed his hip harder. With the combined feeling of Yellow around him and the constant press of White’s cock against his own it didn’t take much longer until he was pushed over the edge. He bucked up one more time as he came, groaning lowly; the closest to a moan he has been so far. 

Yellow whined as Red came, glancing down at his face. He just stared at Red for a moment, focusing on the feeling of the human’s quickened heartbeat under the hand he had on his chest. He soon noticed that White had grown hesitant behind him and he shifted back just off of Red’s softening cock and pushed his hips back against White, willing him to continue. That seemed to make him relax more, and he did, wrapping his other arm around Yellow’s hips now that Red had dropped the one he had there. 

White could soon feel himself getting close now as well, and he reached forward more to grab at Yellow’s cock. Red lowered the hand that had still been lazily entangling with it and let White take it. He tugged on it softly, groaning as it made Yellow chirp and tighten around him. He focused on that as his own thrusts grew less precise, occasionally moaning as Yellow tried to meet him every time despite this. 

Eventually Yellow whined loudly, pressing back against him. “I’m-” His voice broke into a distorted click and he whined again. 

White shushed him lightly, squeezing at the tentacle again. “You’re okay, you can.” He trailed off, feeling Yellow shudder and tighten around him as he came. Groaning softly, he pressed his forehead down against the alien’s shoulder and thrust into him a few more times before he came as well. He hummed, smiling and pressing his face against Yellow’s back for a few moments before pulling away and out. 

Yellow chirped softly as White chuckled behind him. He was near positive the human pressed a ghost of a kiss to the back of his frill before pulling away. He yawned as he slumped down onto the bed, legs wobbly. He half heartedly kicked his pants off all the way. A low, satisfied, thrumming sound emanated from his throat as he curled up against Red’s side. He glanced over to White, raising his voice into a click to try to call him over. 

White smiled, hastily wiping his hand on Yellow’s discarded pants before pushing them onto the floor and stretching before moving to Yellow’s other side. “You feel alright?” He asked quietly as he laid down, more out of habit than anything. 

Yellow hummed, nodding slightly as he pressed back against White while still remaining close to Red. 

Red blinked up at the ceiling and sighed, rubbing at Yellow’s shoulder as he laid against him. He felt… good. No inklings of regret lingering at the back of his subconscious.

  
Maybe this really  _ could _ work. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> If you liked this I will be making a series of it so look out for that, hopefully sometime this week
> 
> As always comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! <3


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